Warpaint intends to acquire Retra for £18m

Warpaint, the specialist supplier of colour cosmetics and owner of the W7 brand, has announced the proposed acquisition of Retra Holdings for £18.2m.

Retra is a UK colour cosmetics business with a significant focus on the gifting market (51% of sales in 2016) principally for high street retailers and supermarkets including Boots, Superdrug and Asda.

Retra owns three major brands: Technic, Body Collection and Man's Stuff, in addition to white label cosmetics produced for several major high street retailers including Asda and Matalan.

Retra recorded profit before tax of £2.3m on sales of £17.5m in the year to 31 December 2016.

Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Sam Bazini and Eoin Macleod, Joint Chief Executives of Warpaint, said: " This acquisition will provide Warpaint with access to new customers and suppliers, increased numbers of product development personnel and additional exposure to the gifting market, an area of increasing focus for Warpaint.”

The directors of Warpaint have indicated that they intend to participate in the Placing for a total of up to £670,000.

In terms of finance, Warpaint has announced a placing of up to 11,157,894 new ordinary shares at a price of 190p per ordinary share by way of an accelerated bookbuild to raise up to £21.2m.