January 22, 2021 - An amended complaint was filed.

September 4, 2020 - An investor in shares of Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Coty Inc. in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between October 3, 2016 and May 28, 2020.

New York based Coty Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells beauty products worldwide. On October 3, 2016, Coty Inc. announced the completion of its blockbuster merger with The Proctor & Gamble Company’s fine fragrance, color cosmetics, salon professional and hair color and certain styling businesses (“P&G Specialty Beauty Business”) for $12.5 billion to scale up its beauty business. In the press release, defendant Becht, Chairman of Coty’s Board of Directors, confirmed that “…we now have a much improved team, structure and culture to make the vision of this merger a reality.”

On July 1, 2019, Coty Inc. announced the write down of about $3 billion in value of brands acquired from P&G as part of a four-year restructuring plan, confirming that the P&G Specialty Beauty Business had been overvalued.

On November 18, 2019, Coty announced another beauty brand acquisition – a 51% majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics for $600 million in order to “build and further develop Kylie’s existing beauty business,” which “realized an estimated $177M net revenues for the trailing twelve months (TTM).” Kylie Jenner was described “as the youngest-ever self-made billionaire on the cover of Forbes Self-Made Billionaire issue in August 2018.”

But then, on May 29, 2020, Forbes reported that Kylie Jenner had provided misleading financial data to the magazine regarding her cosmetics brand. The report said that Kylie Jenner “has been inflating the size and success of her business. For years.” Shares of Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) declined from $13.42 per share in November 2019 to $3.60 per share on May 29, 2020.

On August 27, 2020, Coty Inc. reported its financial results for its fourth quarter and full Fiscal year 2020. Coty Inc. reported that reported that its Total Revenue declined from over $6.28 billion for the 12 months period that ended on June 30, 2019 to over $4.71 billion for the 12 months period that ended on June 30, 2020, and that its Net Loss declined over those respective time periods from over $3.78 billion to over $1 billion. Shares of Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) declined on August 27, 2020, to $3.46 per share.

According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges on behalf of purchasers of Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) common shares between October 3, 2016 and May 28, 2020, that the defendants violated Federal Securities Laws.

More specifically, the plaintiff claims that between October 3, 2016 and May 28, 2020, the Defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that despite being no stranger to beauty brand acquisitions, Coty did not have adequate processes and procedures in place to assess and properly value the P&G Specialty Beauty Business and Kylie Cosmetics acquisitions, that as a result, Coty had overpaid for the P&G Specialty Beauty Business and Kylie Cosmetics, that Coty did not have adequate infrastructure to smoothly integrate and support the beauty brands that it acquired from P&G, including an adequate supply chain, that, as a result of its inadequate infrastructure, Coty was not successfully integrating the beauty brands it acquired from P&G and not delivering synergies from the acquisition,and that, as a result of the foregoing, Coty’s financial statements and Defendants’ statements about Coty’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times.