Coty bought majority control of Kylie Cosmetics the same way it bought a stake in Kim Kardashian’s skincare line the following year — cash upfront, a filed purchase agreement, a percentage anyone can look up. Three years after both women were reported to be trying to get their stakes back, only one of those deals has actually unwound. The other is still Coty’s, and it’s currently one of the few things at Coty that’s growing.
The deal, as filed
Coty and Kylie Jenner announced a purchase agreement on November 18, 2019: Coty would acquire 51% of King Kylie, LLC — the entity holding Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin — for $600 million in cash. The deal closed January 6, 2020. At signing, Coty’s own announcement put Kylie Cosmetics’ trailing twelve-month net revenue at $177 million.
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Stake acquired | 51% of King Kylie, LLC | Coty press release, Nov. 18, 2019 |
| Cash paid | $600.0 million | Coty press release; Coty 10-K purchase-price allocation |
| Agreement announced / deal closed | November 18, 2019 / January 6, 2020 | Coty 10-K (King Kylie acquisition note) |
| Fair value of 49% not acquired (noncontrolling interest) | $212.9 million | Coty 10-K |
| Goodwill allocated | $128.6 million | Coty 10-K |
| Total enterprise value (Coty’s own accounting) | $812.9 million | Coty 10-K |
| Trailing 12-month net revenue at signing | $177 million | Coty press release, Nov. 18, 2019 |
Sources: Coty’s November 18, 2019 press release, also filed as an exhibit to Coty’s 8-K; the purchase-price allocation is from Coty’s 10-K note on the King Kylie acquisition.
Coty’s then-CEO Pierre Laubies called it “an exciting next step in our transformation,” and Jenner said she was “excited to partner with Coty to continue to reach even more fans of Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin around the world.”
Press coverage at the time mostly described the deal as valuing Kylie Cosmetics at “$1.2 billion” — the simple result of dividing $600 million by 51%. Coty’s own books tell a slightly different story: its purchase-price accounting assigns the 49% stake it didn’t buy a fair value of $212.9 million, not the roughly $576 million that a straight pro-rata split of the headline number would suggest, for a total enterprise value of $812.9 million. That gap is ordinary purchase-accounting practice — a noncontrolling, non-marketable minority stake is routinely fair-valued at a discount to a simple per-share extrapolation — but it means the number Coty actually put on paper is meaningfully lower than the round figure that circulated in headlines.
A parallel, smaller bet — with Kim Kardashian
Coty made almost the same move with Kim Kardashian the following year, at smaller scale. It paid $200 million for a 20% stake in her beauty business, announced as KKW Beauty and later relaunched as SKKN BY KIM, in a deal that closed in Coty’s fiscal third quarter of 2021.
| Kylie Cosmetics | Kim Kardashian’s brand | |
|---|---|---|
| Stake acquired | 51% | 20% |
| Price | $600 million | $200 million |
| Deal closed | January 6, 2020 | Coty fiscal Q3 2021 |
| Status as of September 2026 | Still Coty’s | Divested March 21, 2025 |
Both deals put a real, disclosed cash figure and a real, disclosed percentage on a celebrity beauty brand — the part of these arrangements that’s genuinely checkable, as opposed to the Forbes-style net-worth estimates that dominate most celebrity ownership coverage. What happened to each stake afterward is where the two stories split.
The buyback that stalled
In late August and early September 2023, Fortune, Forbes, Happi and FashionNetwork all reported, citing unnamed sources, that Jenner was exploring buying Coty’s 51% stake back. The reporting converged on the same sticking point: disagreement over price and valuation, against a backdrop described as a strained relationship between Coty and Jenner’s team over how the brand was being managed. Contacted by FashionNetwork, Coty declined to comment.
No deal followed. Coty’s own subsequent fiscal disclosures are the best evidence of that: a company doesn’t quietly keep consolidating and promoting a brand it has sold. Kylie Cosmetics shows up, unambiguously still Coty’s, in results filed as recently as fiscal 2026.
The one that didn’t stall
Kim Kardashian’s stake resolved. On March 21, 2025, Coty announced it had divested its 20% stake in SKKN BY KIM. The buyer was SKIMS — Kardashian’s own shapewear company, not Kardashian personally, and not the counterparty in the original 2020–21 deal. Coty’s announcement didn’t disclose a price.
That leaves an asymmetry that’s now three-plus years old: two deals struck on the same basic template, two founders reportedly interested in unwinding them around the same time, and only one actual unwind. Neither Coty nor Jenner’s representatives have said why the Kylie Cosmetics side hasn’t followed — this piece isn’t asserting a reason Coty hasn’t disclosed. What is on the record is the contrast in scale and performance between the two brands under Coty, which is at least a plausible piece of the picture.
The stake Coty kept is the one that’s growing
Coty’s fiscal 2026 was not a strong year company-wide: full-year net revenue came in at $5.81 billion, down 2% on a reported basis and down 5% like-for-like, with adjusted EBITDA down 22% — Coty’s own numbers, corroborated by the Moodie Davitt Report’s coverage of the release.
Kylie Cosmetics is one of the exceptions. Coty’s Q2 fiscal 2026 earnings release, covering the three months ended December 31, 2025, credited Kylie Cosmetics, alongside Burberry, with leading mid-single-digit percentage growth in the company’s prestige makeup category. Its Q4 FY2026 release pointed to continued momentum from the Cosmic by Kylie Jenner Intense fragrance and flagged a Mood Stones fragrance collection under the Kylie name as part of the fiscal 2027 pipeline — the kind of forward product-roadmap language a company doesn’t attach to a brand it’s negotiating to give up.
The takeaway
Both deals are, unusually for this beat, genuinely on the record: real dollar figures, real percentages, filed with the SEC rather than estimated by a magazine. What isn’t on the record is why one unwound and the other hasn’t. Kim Kardashian’s smaller, 20% stake went back to her own company in 2025. Kylie Jenner’s larger, 51% stake — the one reported to be in buyback talks at the same time Kardashian’s was — is still Coty’s, and on Coty’s own numbers, it’s currently pulling more weight for the company than almost anything else in the portfolio.
More ownership breakdowns: who owns SKIMS, Jessica Alba’s stake in The Honest Company, and whether Ryan Reynolds owns Stok Cold Brew.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Kylie Cosmetics? Coty Inc., the publicly traded beauty conglomerate (NYSE: COTY), owns 51% of King Kylie, LLC — the legal entity behind Kylie Cosmetics — per the purchase agreement it announced with Kylie Jenner on November 18, 2019 and closed on January 6, 2020. The remaining 49% was retained by the entity’s existing owners, led by Jenner. Coty consolidates Kylie Cosmetics into its Prestige division and reports its performance as part of that segment, not as a standalone public filer.
How much did Coty pay for Kylie Cosmetics? $600 million in cash for 51% of King Kylie, LLC, per the deal Coty and Jenner announced November 18, 2019 and closed January 6, 2020. In its own 10-K purchase-price accounting, Coty logged that $600 million alongside a $212.9 million fair-value estimate for the 49% stake it didn’t buy, for total enterprise value of $812.9 million — a lower figure than the roughly $1.2 billion that press coverage at the time arrived at by simply dividing $600 million by 51%. Kylie Cosmetics’ trailing twelve-month net revenue at signing was reported as $177 million.
Did Kylie Jenner buy back her stake from Coty? Not as of this writing. Fortune, Forbes, Happi and FashionNetwork all reported in late August and early September 2023 that Jenner was exploring a repurchase of Coty’s 51% stake, with sources citing disagreements over price and valuation; a FashionNetwork request for comment to Coty went declined. More than two years later, Coty’s own fiscal 2026 earnings releases still describe Kylie Cosmetics as an actively growing brand inside its Prestige portfolio, with no announcement of a sale or stake change — evidence, from Coty’s own disclosures, that no buyback has closed.
What happened to Kim Kardashian’s stake deal with Coty? It ended. Coty separately paid $200 million for a 20% stake in Kim Kardashian’s beauty business — announced as KKW Beauty, later relaunched as SKKN BY KIM — in a deal that closed in Coty’s fiscal third quarter of 2021. Coty announced on March 21, 2025 that it had divested that 20% stake, with SKIMS, Kardashian’s own shapewear company, as the buyer. Coty’s announcement didn’t disclose the price.
Is Kylie Cosmetics doing well under Coty? By Coty’s own account, yes, and increasingly so relative to the rest of the company. Coty’s Q2 fiscal 2026 earnings release (for the three months ended December 31, 2025) credited Kylie Cosmetics, alongside Burberry, with leading mid-single-digit percentage growth in prestige makeup. Its Q4 FY2026 release highlighted the Cosmic by Kylie Jenner Intense fragrance and a Mood Stones fragrance collection planned for fiscal 2027. That stands out against Coty’s total company results: full fiscal year 2026 net revenue was $5.81 billion, down 2% reported and down 5% like-for-like, with adjusted EBITDA down 22%.
