(Bloomberg) -- Bernard Arnault's good fortune is rubbing off on some of China's biggest skin-care companies and their founders.
The French fashion tycoon, who supplanted Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates as the world's second-richest person this week, achieved that milestone with a little help from Chinese consumers.
Guangdong Marubi Biotechnology Co., one of several Chinese cosmetic firms that count on an Arnault-backed private equity fund as an investor, is poised to go public in Shanghai as early as this month, a listing that will make 49-year-old founder Sun Huaiqing a billionaire in his own right. A company spokesman declined to comment.
“Many people think listing is a symbol for success, but I don't think so,” Sun said in an 2015 interview posted on the company's website. “An IPO is just a start.
Marubi reported 2018 revenue of 1.6 billion yuan ($233 million), more than half of it from skin-care products, according to a prospectus. Almost 80% of stores that sell its products are outside the biggest cities, making the firm a regional powerhouse with room for expansion.
“The Chinese beauty industry remains fragmented and any good brands with some best-selling products should still see a lot of room to grow,” said Mavis Hui, an analyst at DBS Bank in Hong Kong. Beauty sales, which reached about $6 billion in China last year, may increase in the high single digits annually over the next three to five years, she said.
See also: Arnault joins Bezos, Gates in most exclusive billionaires club
Arnault, one of only three people worth more than $100 billion, along with Gates and Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos, has helped other emerging fashion moguls in Asia. L Catterton, the private equity vehicle backed by his luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH as well as Groupe Arnault, has investments in 25 brands across the continent, according to its website.
In 2011, L Catterton took a stake in Trendy China Group, which owns the Ochirly and Miss Sixty fashion brands. Trendy founder Jacky Xu is worth $1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The family behind another L Catterton-backed fashion firm, Xin Hee Co., is worth $323 million. Xin Hee, which makes mid- to high-end women's clothing, reported 1.8 billion yuan of revenue last year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Venus Feng in Hong Kong at vfeng7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum, Steven Crabill
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