Shiseido Co. has started talks to sell its French operations and assets that run the Carita and Decleor professional skin care brands to French cosmetics giant L'Oreal S.A., the company said Friday.

Shiseido said it has granted L'Oreal exclusive negotiating rights in response to the French company's offer of €230 million (about ¥31 billion) for Carita International S.A. and Laboratoires Decleor S.A.S.

"This project is a wonderful opportunity for our division to become a major player in this strategic professional beauty (products) market," said An Verhulst-Santos, president of L'Oreal's professional products division.

Shiseido said the offer from the world's biggest cosmetics group came while it was reviewing its operations of professional products — those for spas, hair salons and beauty institutes — with the aim of focusing on the Shiseido Professional brand for the Asian market and Joico for the U.S. and European markets.