Former executive director of Morgan Stanley, Fan Xinpeng, was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Florasis. With nearly 20 years of experience in leading investment banks and accounting firms, Fan has successfully assisted companies in leading more than 40 M&A and investment and financing transactions.
On April 1, Beijing time, it was learned that Chinese makeup brand Florasis has appointed April Fan(Fan Xinpeng), formerly an executive director at Morgan Stanley, as a chief financial officer (CFO).
According to public information, Fan has held key positions at Deloitte, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific Investment Bank, and Morgan Stanley. He also enjoyed nearly 20 years of experience in top global investment banks and accounting firms. He has led more than 40 M&A and investment financing transactions, including nearly 20 cross-border M&A projects totaling more than $50 billion and 20 equity and bond transactions totaling more than $30 billion.
The employment of a CFO is often seen as a sign that the company intends to go public. Some speculation shows that Florasis may have plans for an IPO.
However, some investors believe that the introduction of a CFO at this point does not necessarily mean that Florasis will go public anytime soon, given that it takes a long time to plan an IPO, and many companies do a pre-IPO round before going public.
Looking back at the Chinese cosmetics market over the past two years, the listing of Chinese cosmetic companies, represented by the parent company of the cosmetics brand Perfect Diary, YATSEN E-commerce, and the parent company of the skincare brand Winona, BTN, has instantly ignited a consumer fire with countless brands agglomerate to raise funds or seeking to go public, while Florasis is like an “outlier”.
Because it has never officially raised capital.
In 2022, more than 20 public funding events in China’s beauty industry, many of which are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In terms of funding distribution, it covers almost the entire cosmetic industry chain, from raw material manufacturers, ODMs, and brands to channel players.
Among them, the largest financing amount came from Chinese beauty’s new retail brand HARMAY. In January 2022, HARMAY announced the completion of Series C and Series D funding, two rounds of funding transactions with a combined amount of nearly $200 million. Public information shows that so far in 2019, HARMAY has received four rounds of funding. After the latest round of funding, some industry sources pointed out that “its overall valuation may reach $1.415 billion.”
In addition, Bawei Corporation, WOW COLOUR, WINKEY, SIYO, and Mediabook have all received large funding at hundreds of million RMB (about $16 million). These Chinese companies cover ODMs, beauty collection stores, raw material traders, and e-commerce service providers. In contrast, there are fewer cases of direct capital investment in beauty brands this year, both in terms of frequency and amount.
“Capital cares about the whole industry chain, not just a channel or brand.” A source familiar with the matter said. Last year, some of China’s new beauty brands didn’t reach their expectation, especially in the second half of the capital investment in beauty slowed down. This means that putting much investment into traffic is no longer sought after by marketing. The market gradually returned to rationality. In fact, capital no longer favors beauty brands but will focus on more valuable companies or brands.
And the reason why the Florasis is valued by investors, is precisely because of its value of existence and difference. “The concept of oriental beauty and Chinese style created by Florasis and its insistence on R&D are still rare in the Chinese beauty industry.” An investor said, “In Chinese cosmetics brands, Florasis is considered to be doing a relatively solid development and can be compared to the Chinese skincare brand in Winona.” In his opinion, Florasis is more like a traditional Chinese beauty brand than a company that only cares about traffic. “If Florasis declares to go public, it has a high possibility to succeed and the offering will be good.”
