Wella Files for IPO as KKR Keeps a Stake in the Outcome

Wella has filed for an initial public offering, revealing fiscal 2026 sales of $2.9 billion, up 9.2 percent, and a swing to $62 million in net income from a $7.7 million loss a year earlier. The filing, submitted to the SEC on August 31, caps a six-year path from Coty carve-out to prospective public company, and it arrives with an ownership structure that keeps former parent Coty financially attached to the outcome even after its formal exit.

KKR built its position in stages. It paid $4.3 billion for 60 percent of Wella's professional and retail hair business when Coty spun it out in November 2020, then added a 3.6 percent stake from Coty in 2023. On December 19, 2025, Coty sold its remaining 25.8 percent to KKR for $750 million in cash, plus a right to 45 percent of any future proceeds from a Wella sale or IPO once KKR clears a preferred return. Coty called that a full exit, but the earnout means it still has money riding on how this listing prices, roughly eight months later.

The underwriter list carries its own signal: Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan are joined by KKR itself, which means the sponsor is helping underwrite the IPO of its own portfolio company. Bankers are reportedly targeting a valuation well above the 2020 price tag, betting that Wella's brand-level numbers, including more than $1 billion in sales from the core Wella brand and $478 million from ghd, will draw institutional demand.

Governance moved in step with the IPO timeline. Calvin McDonald, who spent more than seven years as Lululemon's chief executive and previously ran Sephora Americas, took over as Wella's CEO on April 2, 2026, four months before the filing. Glenn Murphy, the former Gap chief executive, stays on as executive chair. The pairing of an outside consumer-brand operator with a holdover chair is a familiar setup for private equity firms preparing a portfolio company for life as a public issuer, and it fits a broader pattern this year of PE sponsors on aging beauty holdings looking for an exit ramp through the public markets rather than a sale to a strategic buyer.