South Korea’s top beauty and personal care brand LG Household & Health Care Ltd that finished the first quarter with its best-ever three-month earnings said Tuesday that its Japanese subsidiary Ginza Stefany Cosmetics Co. has acquired entire 4 million shares in Avon Japan for 10.5 billion yen ($96.5 million).

Avon Japan, a 50-year-old company based in Tokyo, raised 100 billion won in sales last year. It is the 21st-largest cosmetics manufacturer in Japan that stays ahead of Lancome at 27th and Estee Lauder at 41st. The purchase is the third by LG Household & Health Care which bought Ginza Stefany Cosmetics in 2012 and Everlife Co. in 2013.

The Korean company advanced into the Japanese market primarily via mail order direct marketing channel to boost personal communication with local consumers due to high entry barrier against foreign brands.

Based on several years of experience in the local market, LG Household & Health Care successfully launched new products such as cushion foundations via home shopping in Japan and managed to rank top on QVC, one of Japan’s leading home shopping network.

In a separate regulatory filing, LG Household and Health Care reported an operating profit of 283.7 billion won in the first quarter ended March, up 9.2 percent against a year-ago period and its best three-month performance. Sales also jumped 6.5 percent to 1.66 trillion won.

The bulk came from beauty care products that generated an income of 212 billion won in the first quarter, up 20.1 percent from the same period a year ago. Sales were also up 12.1 percent to 947.7 billion won during the same period.

Shares of LG Household & Health Care finished unchanged at 1,267,000 won.

By Kang Da-young and Lee Eun-joo

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