Kao Corp. and Kanebo Ltd. said Saturday they are in talks on Kao's purchase of Kanebo's cosmetics operations in what would be Japan's biggest nonfinancial corporate buyout.
Kao and Kanebo said in a statement they have given up their initial plans to integrate their cosmetics operations into a joint company and are now putting the final touches to the details of the buyout deal.
The purchase would lift Kao's cosmetics-related sales on a group basis to around 300 billion yen, making it the No. 2 cosmetics manufacturer in Japan after Shiseido Co.