Natura sold Aesop for $2.525B to cut debt and returned to profit by 2025

Natura &Co spent the 2010s buying its way global — The Body Shop in 2017 and Avon in 2020 — but the empire weighed on the balance sheet and produced losses. By 2022 the group was losing money and highly leveraged, and new CEO Fábio Barbosa chose subtraction over another acquisition.

In April 2023 Natura agreed to sell Aesop, the luxury skincare brand it had bought in 2012, to L'Oréal for an enterprise value of US$2.525 billion — a steep multiple on the brand's US$537 million of 2022 sales. The proceeds were earmarked to cut debt and free resources for strengthening Avon in Latin America.

The sale closed in the third quarter of 2023, and the gain helped Natura post R$7.02 billion of net profit for Q3 2023 against a R$559.8 million loss a year earlier. The group then completed the wider simplification, exiting Avon's international operations and integrating Natura and Avon in Mexico and Argentina.

2024 was still a loss year, R$644 million, as restructuring costs landed. In 2025 the payoff arrived: net profit of R$463 million with EBITDA up 19.8% to R$2.2 billion, even as revenue fell 5.6% to R$29.5 billion in a weak Brazilian consumer market.

Aesop sale at a $2.525B valuation helped Q3 2023 net profit of R$7.02B; after the Avon exit, 2025 net profit was R$463M with EBITDA up 19.8%.

The Aesop sale at $2.525B, a steep multiple on 2022 sales of $537M, deleveraged the balance sheet and produced an immediate gain that swung Q3 2023 to profit.

Exiting Avon's international arm cut complexity and costs, leaving a leaner group focused on Latin America where Natura and Avon overlap.

The 2025 numbers — R$463M profit and EBITDA up 19.8% despite lower revenue — show savings from simplification beating a weak top line.

When acquisitions lever the balance sheet, selling the crown jewel can be the fastest fix: Aesop's $2.525B cut debt, Avon's international exit followed, and profit returned by 2025.

After years of losses and leverage, Natura &Co entered 2026 with a simpler, Latin-America-focused portfolio, planning to strengthen margins and regional presence. The case became a cautionary counterpoint to its own 2017-2020 acquisition spree: the same company, valued for buying brands, later had to sell them one by one to get back to profit.