L'Oreal not interested in Wella - executive tells Handelsblatt

PARIS (Reuters) - L'Oreal (OREP.PA) is not interested in buying Procter & Gamble Co's (PG.N) Wella haircare business, the head of the French cosmetics group's luxury division told German daily Handelsblatt in an interview.

Asked if Wella could find a new home at L'Oreal, Nicolas Hieronimus was quoted as saying: "No."

Sources close to the matter said last month that personal care and cosmetics companies Henkel & Co (HNKG_p.DE), Revlon (REV.N) and Coty (COTY.N) were preparing bids for parts of Procter & Gamble's beauty business.

They said L'Oreal was looking at potentially buying P&G's perfume and cosmetics business.

Henkel is interested in P&G's haircare unit, which includes the Wella and Clairol brands, the sources said. The haircare business is worth about $7 billion based on annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of around $500 million (325 million pounds), the sources said.

Asked why L'Oreal would not be interested in Wella, Hieronimus said: "As global market leader, we are already very well established among hair salons with our own brands."

Asked if L'Oreal needed in general to buy new brands, the executive said the group had an "optimal brand portfolio" but that it would always look at new opportunities.

"We have an optimal brand portfolio today. You can see that from the fact that we are growing 1 1/2 times as fast as the market worldwide. Still, we always look at new opportunities," Hieronimus said.

(Reporting by James Regan and Astrid Wendlandt; Editing by Mark Potter)