Wella Professionals is owned by KKR (the United States, NYSE: KKR) through its subsidiary Wella Company, which acquired the brand on 1 December 2020 from Coty, as part of a $4.3 billion deal that also included Nioxin.[1][2] Before Wella Company, Wella Professionals was owned by Coty from 2016 to 2020.[1]
KKR owns 60% of Wella Company rather than all of it.
Evidence: Coty Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K, SEC EDGAR. Last checked .
Wella was founded in Germany in 1880 by a hairdresser who made wigs, and became one of the largest professional hair colour brands in the world, sold through salons rather than retail. It passed from Procter & Gamble to Coty in 2016 and to the KKR-controlled Wella Company in 2021.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full KKR ownership tree →
See the full KKR brand portfolio (12) →
KKR controls 12 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in personal care & beauty.
The 29 brands in hair colour & styling on Brandtree belong to 16 owners. The largest is Hoyu, with 6; KKR has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Beauteen | Hoyu | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Elujuda | Milbon | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| got2b | Henkel | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| Samantha | Kino Indonesia | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| L'Oréal Paris | L'Oréal | 🇫🇷 France |
| Revlon ColorSilk | Revlon | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Clairol | Coty | 🇺🇸 United States |
| ALCINA | Dr. Wolff Group | 🇩🇪 Germany |
KKR is a private-equity firm headquartered in New York, United States, founded in 1976. Brandtree records 12 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: KKR.
KKR was founded in 1976 and effectively invented the leveraged buyout as a large-scale business, most famously with its 1988 takeover of RJR Nabisco. Its consumer holdings are held through funds rather than permanently, so brands under its control are expected to be sold within several years.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 252 brands that began in Germany. 93 of them (37%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Wella Professionals among them.
Coty sold a controlling sixty per cent stake in its professional beauty and retail hair business to KKR, valuing it at about $4.3 billion. The carve-out created Wella Company as a standalone business, which is why salon brands and Coty fragrances now sit under different owners.
Procter & Gamble transferred 41 beauty brands, including CoverGirl, Max Factor, Clairol and Wella, to Coty in a Reverse Morris Trust structured to be tax-efficient for P&G shareholders. It was the largest single step in P&G's programme of cutting its portfolio from about 170 brands to 65.
The parent company of Wella Professionals is KKR, a private-equity firm headquartered in the United States. Wella Professionals sits under KKR's subsidiary Wella Company.
Wella Professionals originated in Germany in 1880, but it is owned today by KKR, which is headquartered in the United States. So Wella Professionals is a German-origin brand under American ownership.
KKR completed its acquisition of Wella Professionals on 1 December 2020, after announcing the deal on 1 June 2020. The deal, which also included Nioxin, was valued at $4.3 billion (enterprise value).
Before KKR, Wella Professionals was owned by Coty from 2016 until 2020.
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, Wella Professionals is still owned by KKR. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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