China's Shangmei buys Dead Sea skincare brand Ahava in global shopping spree
What's the deal? Chinese beauty group Shangmei has acquired AhavaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Israeli Dead Sea mineral skincare brand founded in 1988. The deal, announced in August 2026, saw Shangmei's wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai QingdaoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → form a joint venture with Ahava and YuyuanDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with Shangmei taking absolute control. Terms were not disclosed.
What each side brings. Ahava is Israel's only skincare maker with a factory on the Dead Sea coast, giving it control of scarce mineral-based ingredients. For Shangmei, it fills a price gap above its flagship Kans brand, offering a mid-to-high-end entry into a segment long dominated by foreign players.
Why now? Domestic beauty groups are turning to acquisitions as their flagship brands cool. Companies including ProyaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Kans, and Comfy have all seen main-brand growth slow, and building new brands from scratch takes too long to offset that. Buying established brands with existing markets and operations is the faster route.
The bigger push. August was busy for Shangmei. Beyond Ahava, it raised its stake in infant skincare brand Yiye to 84%, launched a youth wash-and-care brand, and signed a strategic pact with South Korean regenerative-medicine firm PharmaResearchDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to localise its Rejuran cosmetics line in China.
The pattern. Rivals are moving too. Proya has taken control of Florasis brand Flower Knows and invested in Bosichen; Ruyichen bought Erno LaszloDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → for about US$41.1M in April; and Juyi completed its global buyout of Italy's FoltèneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in October 2025. Water Sheep has strung together French, US, and UK acquisitions to reposition as a luxury group.
What could go wrong? Chinese beauty M&A is still early-stage. The value of each deal depends on whether the acquired brand's positioning, team, and culture survive integration — otherwise a purchase destroys value rather than creating it. Whether an acquirer's DNA matches its target is another open question.
The signal: China's beauty players are borrowing a page from L'Oréal and Estée Lauder, whose empires were built on decades of acquisitions rather than in-house incubation. But global giants also prune aggressively — Procter & Gamble sold nearly 100 brands over a decade to focus resources. Chinese groups are still mostly adding; the harder test of when to subtract lies ahead.
Read more: jiemian.com
Image credit: H@rpoon
