French beauty company L’Occitane has increased its stake in US cosmetic and skincare company LimeLife by Alcone to 60.48 percent as part of its plans to drive the company’s global growth and complement its existing beauty strategy.

The increased share in LimeLife, which owns LimeLife USA, will follow a share capital increase, which will see ‘the conversion of a portion amounting to US$15,540,541 of share premium reserve held by LimeLife into 15,540,541 shares in LimeLife to be issued to the Group,’ according to L’Occitane.

Mr. Reinold Geiger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of L’Occitane, said, “The increase in stake enables us to gain greater control over LimeLife, which fits into our strategy of building a leading portfolio of cosmetics brands based on natural ingredients, while also speeding up our expansion into the promising colour cosmetics sector.”

The naturals brand is set to develop and fund LimeLife’s business development plan over the coming three years.

Geiger continued, “We will develop a specified distribution model outside of the USA by creating a global brand and product offering under the brand ‘LimeLife’ and provide operational support for LimeLife’s current and future subsidiaries and local sales forces across the world. We continue to believe that these strategies, which are already being implemented for LimeLife’s business in the USA, will help our future global growth and complement our existing business.”