Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us as we discuss our sales update for the third quarter and first nine months of 2026 that ended on September 30th. Today, we are joined by our CEO, José Manuel Albesa, and our CFO, Miquel Angel Serra. José Manuel will share some brief remarks, and then we will open up the line for Q&A. The presentation and press release are available on our website, and you will also be able to access a replay of this recording on our website after the event. With that, I will hand it over to José Manuel.
Thank you, Varenya. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to be speaking to you following another strong quarter for Puig. In the third quarter, we delivered record sales with like-for-like revenue growth of 5.6%, or 7.2% on a reported basis, reflecting continued momentum across our businesses and the strength of our portfolio of brands. These results demonstrate the quality of our business model, the desirability of our brands and innovations, and the disciplined execution of our strategy by our teams around the world. As we move into the final month of the year, we continue to be focused on executing against our priorities, and remain confident in our outlook for the full year.
We also look forward to welcoming many of you to our Capital Markets Day next week, where we will share our strategic priorities and ambitions for the next phase of Puig's growth. Let me share more detail on our performance during the quarter. During the first nine months of 2026, we generated net revenues of approximately EUR 3.7 billion, representing like-for-like growth of 4.8% ahead of the premium beauty market, and 4.1% on a reported basis. Performance was broad-based across the business, with all segments delivering positive like-for-like growth, and particularly strong double-digit performance in niche, makeup, dermo-cosmetics, and Asia Pacific. We are still in the process of collating the global sellout data for the quarter, but from early results, we can see our sellout in fragrance in the U.S. was very strong. We are also seeing growth in the European top five markets.
Similarly, very strong sellout trends for Charlotte Tilbury across the U.S. and key European markets, supporting the strong results that we have been sharing. The third quarter marked a record quarter for Puig, with net revenues reaching EUR 1.4 billion. Like-for-like growth was 5.6%, while reported growth reached 7.2%, benefiting from favorable currency movements during the quarter. This performance reflected continued momentum across all geographies, with particularly strong contributions from fragrance and fashion, and makeup. The quarter reflects the momentum we have continued to build through the year, with third quarter growth improving to 5.6% from 4.1% in the second quarter. Let me share some more color on the performance of each of our business segments. Fragrance and fashion continued its steady performance, generating net revenues of EUR 2.7 billion in the first nine months of 2026, representing like-for-like growth of 3.8%.
The segment remained the largest contributor to our business, accounting for 72% of Puig's net revenues during the period. It is noteworthy that all our niche fragrance brands grew double digits for the first nine months of 2026. In the third quarter, net revenues reached EUR 986 million, with like-for-like growth of 3.9%, in line with the first half. This performance was driven by the continued strength of our niche fragrance portfolio, alongside another strong quarter from Carolina Herrera, both of which grew double digits.
After five years of exceptional growth, during which Rabanne and Jean Paul Gaultier multiplied significantly in size, the recent quarters have been a period of normalization. Recent innovations are now beginning to reignite growth, giving us confidence in the next phase of their development. 1 Million Black from Rabanne entered the top 10 fragrance line in the U.S. and European key markets in its launch month.
La Favorite, Jean Paul Gaultier's first feminine fragrance in 10 years, has entered the top 15 feminine fragrance line in France following its recent launch. Early results are encouraging. The segment remains steady, and we expect similar performance to continue into Q4. Makeup was the fastest growing business segment during the first nine months of 2026. The segment generated net revenues of EUR 628 million, with like-for-like growth of 12%, and represented 17% of Puig's total net revenues. In the third quarter, makeup delivered another excellent performance, with net revenues reaching EUR 270 million and like-for-like growth of 16.1%. This strong growth was supported by healthy sellout trends across the regions, continued market share gains, innovation, and selective distribution expansion. Innovation remained a key driver of growth, including launches further strengthening the Airbrush franchise from Charlotte Tilbury. We were particularly pleased with the momentum in the category during the quarter.
All current sellout trends remain healthy. Following the strong performance delivered in Q3, we continue to expect sellout growth to be in line with the first nine months. However, we expect Q4 sell-in growth to be measured against a very demanding comparison base. As a reminder, in Q4 2025, the segment delivered 26.5% growth. Turning to skincare, the segment generated net revenues of EUR 440 million in the first nine months of 2026. Representing like-for-like growth of 1.3% and accounting for 11% of Puig's total net revenues. In the third quarter, skincare generated net revenues of EUR 135 million, representing a like-for-like decline of 0.8% or 0.6% positive reported growth. Dermo-cosmetics is an area of strategic focus for Puig, as reinforced with the recent announcement to acquire the remaining 50% of ISDIN.
This part of our skincare segment continued to perform strongly in Q3, delivering another quarter of double-digit growth led by our dermo-cosmetic brands. While premium skincare continued to be soft during the third quarter, reflecting underlying trends in North America, the continued outperformance of dermo-cosmetics reinforces our confidence in the long-term opportunities within the category. Let me now turn to our performance across geographies, where we deliver growth in our regions during both the quarter and the first nine months of the year. EMEA continued to deliver healthy growth, generating net revenues of EUR 1.9 billion in the first nine months of 2026, representing like-for-like growth of 3%. The region remained our largest market, accounting for 52% of Puig's net revenues during the period. In the third quarter, net revenues reached EUR 728 million, with like-for-like growth of 3.8%.
This performance was supported by the continued strength of niche fragrances, dermo-cosmetics, and makeup, as well as selective distribution gains across the region. We are also pleased to see that the disruption experienced in the Middle East during the first half of the year did not have a meaningful impact on the region's performance in the quarter. In the Americas, net revenues reached EUR 1.4 billion in the first nine months of 2026, representing like-for-like growth of 3.8%.
The region accounts for 36% of Puig's net revenues during the period. In the third quarter, net revenues reached EUR 507 million, with like-for-like growth of 6.2%. This strong performance was driven by fragrance and fashion and makeup, more than offsetting a demanding comparison base from the prior year. APAC remained our fastest-growing region during the first nine months of 2026, generating net revenues of EUR 430 million and like-for-like growth of 17.9%.
The region accounts for 11% of Puig's net revenues during the period. In the third quarter, net revenues reached EUR 157 million, representing like-for-like growth of 12.9%. This performance was supported by strong momentum across categories, with particularly notable growth in niche fragrances and makeup. With three strong quarters behind us and continued momentum across the business, we reiterate our confidence in delivering against our outlook for 2026. Before we conclude, let me highlight a significant announcement that we made last month. On the September 14th, we announced an important step in our long-term strategy. We reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 50% stake in ISDIN, which will bring our ownership of the business to 100% upon completion. ISDIN is a highly attractive brand at the forefront of skincare, photoprotection, and photoaging, rooted in medical credibility. It brings a strong track record of growth, innovation, and category leadership.
The transaction further strengthens our position in dermo-cosmetics, a category where we continue to see significant long-term opportunities. We will share more color on this next week at our Capital Markets Day. Under the terms of the agreement, Puig will pay EUR 900 million at closing, expected in the first quarter of 2027, together with a deferred payment of EUR 300 million payable in the first quarter of 2029. I also want to highlight some events from the quarter that embody the spirit of Puig as a home of creativity. Our brands continue to demonstrate their cultural relevance and creative strength. During New York Fashion Week, Carolina Herrera celebrated its 45th anniversary with an acclaimed spring summer 2027 show, while Good Girl, our leading feminine fragrance franchise, marked its 10th anniversary.
We were also pleased to see that Dries Van Noten spring summer 2027 collection receive strong recognition from leading fashion media, with frequent mentions in the top 10 shows of the season. Before I conclude, we are very much looking forward to having you join us for our Capital Markets Day on October 28th. It will be an important opportunity to share our strategic roadmap and the key drivers that will shape the next phase of Puig's growth and the long-term value creation. With that, thank you for your attention. I will hand it back to Varenya.
Thank you, José Manuel, for your remarks. Those interested may now register for the webcast of our Capital Markets Day at www.puigcmd2026.com. The presentations will begin at 13:00 CET on October 28th, and we look forward to you joining us. Let's take our first question.
The next question comes from Aron Adamski from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good evening, José Manuel, Miquel Angel, and Varenya. Thanks for taking my questions. On prestige fragrance, could you please discuss the trends you've seen across Rabanne, Carolina Herrera, and Jean Paul Gaultier, and also whether any of them are tracking below expectations despite quite an easy comparison basis in fragrances that you were lapping in the third quarter?
I think you will be lapping quite a tough two-year comparison base in fragrance. Do you expect that division to grow through the fourth quarter, or could this perhaps turn negative? Thank you.
Thank you, Aron, for your question. Well, yes, we will start with the sell-in. In fragrance and fashion, we are about 3.9% like-for-like growth in Q3, 5.7% in reported. It was reported first but double-digit growth in our niche fragrances and in Carolina Herrera. Referring to Rabanne and Gaultier, as you were asking before, as we discussed in the last quarter, those two brands have been doubling and tripling their size in the last five years. In the recent quarters, we experienced a kind of normalization or consolidation of this strong growth from the past. So we are starting to see that we are reigniting growth. We are happy to announce that 1 Million Black, which was launched worldwide by end of August, is reaching top 10 line positions both in the U.S. and in Europe. It was the first step of reigniting growth.
As you remember, second step will be next year, the launch of our new masculine fragrance. In the case of Gaultier, we are also reigniting growth. We just launched, a little bit later, La Favorite, only in key European markets. We will have the global rollout next year, and we are happy with the result. We are having a top 15 line with La Favorite in France, which is one of the most difficult markets to penetrate with innovation. So we are quite happy with those results now. If we move to sellout, as you remember, we said that we report a sellout in a six-month basis. In the half one, we reported an increase of 0.3 points in sellout.
We are now collecting global data and our early results, we see a very strong sellout increase in the U.S., and we are also, of course, seeing growth in the Europe top five markets. So we feel comfortable with those results, in line what we expected. This Q3 performance is very much in line with our expectation for the segment. Regarding Q4, we feel very comfortable with inventory levels in the channel, and we see a Q4 not very different for the last nine months. Thank you for your question, Aron. I hope this answers the whole question.
Yes, very clear. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
The next question comes from Tom Randall from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Evening all. Thanks for taking my question. On makeup, you have highlighted strong sellout and market share gains and then some distribution expansion as well. Do you mind quantifying the distribution gains that you are seeing? Then given the strength of the sellout, should we still expect any meaningful channel inventory adjustment in the fourth quarter, or would you say that risk has largely gone away? Thank you.
Thank you, Tom, for your question. In the case of makeup, as you were mentioning, our principal driver was a strong sellout performance, our strongest sellout performance that we have gained market share across regions. Innovation was an important contribution, very particularly in our Airbrush franchise. As you said, we have some modest distribution gains. As we already share in Q2, we open those 30 doors in Boots. We open some few doors in Sephora, in some European countries. Also we complete our distribution in Ulta. Once again, those are modest distribution gain. The big reason why is a very healthy consumer demand and a very strong brand momentum. What we could expect for Q4, we have to realize that we have a very tough comparison with last year, because in Q4 last year, we growth 26.5% in Q4.
So in terms of sellout, we feel very, very comfortable with the brand performance and with paying some continuity with the sell trends, having in mind the watch anniversary, this is a Q4 that was really important last year. Thank you, Tom, for your question. I hope this answer.
That's great. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Céline Pannuti from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
All right. Good evening. Thank you very much. My first question is on the fragrance market. At nine months, you were growing at 3.9%. You said the sellout at H1 was a bit better, a bit more than 4%. Do you think you are tracking in line with the market for fragrance? Can you give us a bit of a feel for demand because it felt like the market was growing more like mid-single digit, and it seems you are doing a bit less than that. Also in Q4, you are alluding to the same performance as in Q3 despite the tougher comps. Is it because there is a bit of a change in timing of sell-in to the trade? What's driving your expectation on the 4% for the fourth quarter? Can I ask as well on my second question on-
Sorry, Céline, do you mind repeating the question? We weren't able to hear you very clearly. Could you go a bit slowly and repeat the question? Sorry about that.
Yeah, no problem. My question is on fragrances. You grew 3.9% at nine months. I just want to understand that in the context of the fragrance market. Are you seeing the fragrance market around mid-single digits? Are you slightly underperforming that market? I would like to have a feel for maybe demand by region. Also, you seem to indicate that Q4 would be the same as Q3, despite tougher comp. What's driving that? Do you have a change in your sell-in timing for the year-end season, and that drives your expectation of around 4% for the fourth quarter? Then I have a follow-up question on skin. Can you say what's the difference, like what's the proportion of the dermo-cosmetics of this luxury skincare? I'm trying to understand the weakness in luxury skincare.
You mentioned the U.S., but if you could elaborate a bit, is that from Charlotte Tilbury, or is it from your other skincare brands?
Okay. Céline, thank you for your question. I'm going to start with the skincare, and we'll continue with fragrance, if this is okay for you. In terms of skincare, we have two very clear different dynamics in Q3. From one side, we have our dermo-cosmetic led by Uriage, which we maintain our double-digit growth from the previous quarters and remain a strong part of our portfolio. On the other side, we have this premium skincare, which is roughly Charlotte Tilbury skincare and Dr. Barbara Sturm. That remains soft in this quarter. The reason why mainly was North America. We see the high-end skincare market in North America decreasing at 5%, and that explains the situation of this Q3. What we see as we go ahead, we see some continuity for Q4 and in the next year.
Well, first of all, we will reinforce our dermo-cosmetics side with ISDIN, and in the case of Dr. Barbara Sturm and Charlotte Tilbury, we have a very important pipeline of innovation. In the case of Dr. Barbara Sturm, very addressed to the U.S. market, and in the case of Charlotte Tilbury, more addressed to affordability. That set up our vision for skincare. We will share more with you in our Capital Markets Day. Around fragrance, I think that Capital Markets Day will be a great momentum to give you a clear outlook of how we see the market evolving through 2032. We see a similar trend for Q4 as a market and as our performance. We are really outperforming market big way in our niche brands, and we are very happy with the results.
Carolina Herrera is also enjoying a very nice double-digit growth with both Good Girl and La Bomba growing. We are roughly 70% ahead of our budget in La Bomba. We are also excited. The first results of our innovation in Gaultier seems quite promising. We feel confident with Q4, and we will share more color of how we see the fragrance market evolving for the next years. Hope this clarified your question.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Joffrey Bellicha Meller from BofA Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my question. The first question I have is around skincare as well. I just wanted to understand maybe in a bit better details if there was anything specific to Charlotte Tilbury and the reformulation of Magic Cream that was still maybe playing a role here in the underperformance of the premium skincare part of the portfolio. That's my first question. The second question I had for you is looking at the dermo-skincare part of the business, which obviously is doing significantly better. Can you explain to us what are the key drivers behind the growth of that part of the business? Is it benefiting from white space? If so, in which regions are you seeing these white space benefits? Also, obviously, what are the tailwinds you're seeing from the underlying category?
Is the category also doing better overall?
Thank you. Thank you, Joffrey, for your questions. If you don't mind, I will take the first one. Your questions on did we have any impacts in Charlotte Tilbury because of the reformulations and the change of SKUs that we have been doing in the U.S. Yes, the answer is yes. So we have been facing a negative impact because of what we already had been commenting in the prior quarters, and this is also now being an impact that's draining on the skincare performance as you have seen. From a geographical perspective, the place where we have seen the most is in the U.S. We think that these impacts, up to some extent, are going to start fading out entering into next year, where we're going to start lapping a little bit of the renewal of the portfolio in the skincare there.
I think José Manuel can take the second one.
Yes. Your question was about dermo-cosmetic performance and white spaces. Listen, we will share very deeply next week in our Capital Markets Day how we see a skincare market evolving. Without any doubt, dermo-cosmetic is going to be the faster-growing segment of the skincare in the next year, and we are strongly betting on skincare. The growth came mainly for main categories and main geographies. There is not any specific high growth. Growth is constant by geographies and by the different segments of our dermo-cosmetic brands. We will clearly specify why the arrival of ISDIN will help us to really become a leader within the dermo-cosmetic. We think that with this new acquisition, we think that we have a very solid footprint in the pharmacy channel and very focused in EMEA and LATAM.
Now with our Puig platform, we see opportunities from next year to increase our geographic scope, but also our channel scope. As we see that this market, it is really booming also outside of the pharmacies. We see more and more interest in especially stores such as Ulta or Boots. We see also a lot of interest in travel retail. We see also big interest in department stores such as Galeries Lafayette in France or Liverpool in Mexico or El Corte Inglés in Spain. So we see an appetite for this dermo-cosmetic, which has the right level of science at a much affordable price point of the prestige and premium skincare, and we see great momentum ahead. Hope this clarified your question, Joffrey.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Fernando Abril-Martorell from Alantra. Please go ahead. Can you hear us, Fernando?
We'll move on to the next one.
The next question comes from Jeff Stent from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my questions. Two, if I may. The first one is, I think you said the high-end North American skincare market is declining at 5% in the quarter. That seems very much at odds with the kind of body language from peers and also from beauty retailers. If you could maybe just elaborate a little bit on that observation and what's underpinning that would be brilliant. The second question is the headline multiple for ISDIN looks relatively high based on 2025 financials. Was there anything in 2025 that materially depressed profits of ISDIN that year? Do you view, on an underlying basis, the takeout valuation as being rather different? Thank you.
Thank you, Jeff, for your questions. I may take the second one on ISDIN. We think it's a bit too early for us to make a statement on the closing of the multiples. As a reminder for everyone, we don't yet consolidate ISDIN in the figures. We're going to start doing that after closing, expected in Q1 2027. With respect to 2025 figures, they were below the historical averages that ISDIN had experienced. We hope to be able to share more when we do have the full year closings of ISDIN, where we will make the relevant comments when it comes to the multiples applied to the transaction. In any case, as José Manuel was saying, we do see a very strong strategic fit of having ISDIN consolidating in our portfolio.
Your first question, Jeff, was about the high-end skincare. Our data came from Circana. What we are seeing today in the U.S. market, and those are data of August year to date, is the high-end skincare decreasing at 4.8%. This is data market. It's true that we see more and more that the skincare and the high-end premium skincare is being overtaken in dermo-cosmetics and also in this K-beauty trend. So we see more accessible skincare with good levels of science background in both K-beauty and dermo-cosmetics, which is a trend that we are seeing more and more penetrating, not only in the U.S., but also all over the market. That's why we say that we expect the dermo-cosmetic segment to grow much faster than the whole beauty skincare segment worldwide. Hope this answered your question, Jeff.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from Mariano Szachtman from Banco Santander. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, José Manuel, Miquel Angel, Varenya. Thanks for taking my question. The first one, it's on niche fragrance. Any further color you could provide between the different brands? Is any of them growing materially ahead of the others or having a strong momentum, let's say accelerating further in the third quarter? My second question is actually a follow-up on skincare. Back in July, you suggested that the category could improve in the second half of the year. We see the third quarter deteriorating sequentially. Just to understand, has anything changed in the market since then, or would you still expect to see a better exit rate and potentially positive growth in the fourth quarter? Thank you.
Mariano, thank you for your question. Let me take the first one. It was about niche. Niche, we are very satisfied with our performance. All our four brands, Byredo, Penhaligon's, L'Artisan Parfumeur, and Dries Van Noten, are enjoying high double-digit growth. Byredo is the one growing more significantly because it is our biggest brand, and it is growing very strong in the U.S., and it is growing very strong in Asia and Europe. But also, at the same time, brands like Dries Van Noten or L'Artisan Parfumeur are catching up with high double-digit growth. We feel extremely pleased with the performance of those niche brands, and we see a continued momentum for the next years.
Mariano, I will take your second question on the skincare side and what to expect for Q4. In here, we think that the trends we have seen so far, especially during the last two quarters, will somewhat remain. We are still very comfortable in the performance that the dermo-cosmetics are going to be having. We still continue seeing a significant strong growth, in both Uriage and Apivita there. When it comes to the more premium skincare, where we do play and do we have an overweight position in the U.S. and LATAM, for someone else waiting, the situation there is still one of complexity when it comes to the high-end side.
Given also the changes we have done in the portfolio there, we think that the situation we are going to have in Q4 is going to be somewhat not much misaligned with the ones we have had over Q3. Overall, the weight of the business could leave us in the flattish scenario. That is a little bit what we are expecting so far for Q4. These now, when it gets to next year, most of these impacts should be now both in newness we have incorporated in both Dr. Barbara Sturm and Charlotte Tilbury and the adjustments we are doing there in the portfolio. We think they are going to be reigniting the positive growth into those two brands when it comes to the skincare there. I hope this answered your question, Mariano.
With that, we come to the end of our question and answer session. We look forward to you joining us at our Capital Markets Day. Have a good evening.