PARIS – As Coty Inc. continues to deleverage, it has agreed to sell $150 million of its stake in hair care giant Wella.

Coty said Tuesday that it expects to sell a 3.6 percent stake within the skilled hair care brand to investment firm IGF Wealth Management, with the money proceeds for use to pay down debt.

Coty reiterated its commitment to divest its remaining 22.3 percent stake in Wella by 2025. The group said that the $150 million reflects a 4 percent premium to the book value of Wella as of March 31.

The deal is predicted to shut in the subsequent two months.

“Today’s announcement is a milestone for Coty, because the partial monetization of our Wella stake reinforces the strength of our balance sheet, with no debt maturities in the subsequent two years and our remaining Wella stake carrying an implied valuation of roughly $900 million,” Laurent Mercier, chief financial officer of Coty, said in a press release.

“The expected transaction is a concrete step in our commitment to each fully divest our retained Wella stake and reach leverage of roughly two times by end of CY25,” he said. “Coupling this deleveraging with a best-in-class medium-term growth algorithm, an energetic capital return program, including $400 million in targeted future share buybacks, and the continued momentum in our business, it is evident that we’re reinforcing Coty’s position as a beauty powerhouse.”

Coty sold its skilled division, including Wella, OPI and Clairol, to KKR on Nov. 30, 2020. The $2.5 billion transaction gave the private equity firm 60 percent control over a three way partnership. Coty then owned the opposite 40 percent, which on the time was valued at $1.3 billion.

The group planned to make use of $2 billion to pay down debt, with the remaining earmarked for general corporate purposes.

The sale of the skilled division was a part of Coty’s plan to concentrate on its other business segments.

Then in October 2021, Coty said it was selling about 9 percent of its stake in Wella to KKR in exchange for nearly half of the U.S. cosmetics group’s shares that the private equity firm owned in a transaction valued at roughly $426.5 million.

The move decreased Coty’s share in Wella to about 30.6 percent, which was then valued at about $1.38 billion.

As Coty continues to deleverage, it’s considering a dual listing in Paris, in addition to Recent York, as previously reported.