Billionaire Bastas emerges in auction for BWX’s Sukin brand

afr.com:

Dennis Bastas, the billionaire businessman behind the country’s largest generic drug supplier, is one of several parties in the final stages of the auction of BWX’s skincare brand Sukin and its production site.

BWX, the ASX-listed beauty group backed by the Forrest family, collapsed in April owing the Commonwealth Bank around $105 million. The company’s assets have been put up for sale by its receivers, KPMG. Greenhill & Co is selling the Sukin brand and manufacturing site.

Sukin is the top-selling natural skin and hair care brand in supermarkets.

Mr Bastas, witha fortune of $1.32 billion, according to the Financial Review Rich List, is the owner of Arrotex Pharmaceuticals, which produces treatments for hay fever, digestive health, as well as cold and flu.

Dennis Bastas, owner of Arrotex Pharma, is bidding for Sukin and its manufacturing site at Clayton.  Nicole Reed

Another party that remains in the Sukin sales process is Natural Beauty Care, whose largest shareholder, PNB Consolidated, is controlled by former BWX chief executive John Humble. Mr Humble, with the backing of Bain Capital, made a failed $860 million buyout offer for BWX in 2018. He left the company that year, and in 2020 purchased a stake in NBC with the aim of creating another natural beauty franchise.

NBC is only interested in the Sukin brand, sources said, while Mr Bastas is interested in buying both the brand and the 10-year lease at the Clayton-based purpose-built factory. SI Capital, a British firm backed by several high-net-worth Chinese, was only interested in buying the Sukin brand but is now out of the process, sources close to the firm said. Two other private equity groups firms are also eyeing the Sukin brand and manufacturing site.

Final bids