Houlihan Lokey Buys Vicente & Partners to Deepen Consumer Deal Push

Houlihan Lokey signed an agreement on October 30 to acquire Vicente & Partners, adding a nine-person consumer team to its London office with credentials that include Coty's $4.3 billion hair-business divestiture to KKR.

The deal expands Houlihan Lokey's advisory coverage in beauty, personal care and pet health across Europe and the U.S. — categories the bank calls rapidly growing and increasingly dominated by specialized, subsector-savvy buyers.

Who is joining, and what do they bring?

Vicente & Partners was established in London in 2020 by Alejandro Vicente, the former global head of consumer goods investment banking at J.P. Morgan. Vicente has more than 30 years of experience in fast-moving consumer goods, including 17 years at J.P. Morgan and eight years in senior corporate positions. He joins Houlihan Lokey as a managing director.

Colleagues Lidiia Gaiduk and Michelle Garcia will also join the firm. In total, the acquisition adds nine financial professionals to Houlihan Lokey's London office.

The team's track record spans some of the more visible consumer deals of recent years:

• Touchland's sale to Church & Dwight
• Kering's acquisition of luxury fragrance house Creed
• Coty's $4.3 billion divestiture of its professional and retail hair business to KKR
• Multiple sales of pet health companies to strategic corporate buyers

That last line of work matters. Pet health has become one of the most active corners of consumer M&A, and Vicente & Partners has sold companies in the sector repeatedly to corporate strategics — exactly the buyer set Houlihan Lokey wants to reach more often.

Why is Houlihan Lokey buying now?

The bank frames the acquisition as a specialization play. Jay Novak, Global Co-Head of Corporate Finance at Houlihan Lokey, said: "In today's evolving market, clients increasingly require advisors who possess deep subsector specialization, world-class capital markets expertise, and truly global reach. Partnering with this team allows us to deliver exactly that combination."

Alexander Grünwald, Global Co-Head of the Consumer Group at Houlihan Lokey, pointed to the fit with existing strengths: "Vicente & Partners' expertise in the high-growth beauty, personal care, and pet health sectors perfectly complements our existing strong capabilities in these areas."

The target firm's founder framed the move as scale meeting culture. Alejandro Vicente said: "We have built Vicente & Partners by focusing on close, long-term relationships, our deep sector expertise, and our differentiated, highly discreet approach. Joining Houlihan Lokey is a natural evolution for us, as we share the same core values."

For Vicente & Partners' clients, the combination means access to a larger international platform and a broader range of services — capital markets and transaction capabilities that a nine-person boutique couldn't offer on its own.

How big is Houlihan Lokey's consumer franchise?

The Consumer Group already fields more than 140 industry-focused professionals worldwide. Its services cover mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, restructuring, and financial and valuation advice.

The rankings support the expansion thesis. LSEG ranked Houlihan Lokey as the leading adviser for global consumer M&A valued below $1 billion during 2025, excluding accounting firms and brokers. That's the mid-market sweet spot where beauty, personal care and pet health assets trade most often — and where subsector knowledge tends to decide outcomes.

Once complete, the transaction will further expand Houlihan Lokey's London-based consumer team and its coverage of luxury and health-oriented consumer categories. Expect the bank to push its new managing director's deal flow in fragrance, beauty and pet care hard — those are the subsectors where the $4.3 billion KKR mandate and the Creed sale were won, and where Houlihan Lokey now holds top mid-market league-table position.