Puig shares plummet after Estée Lauder negotiations end

Madrid – The market's response to the announcement of the unsuccessful end to negotiations between Puig and The Estée Lauder Companies regarding a potential merger of their businesses has been swift. It has come in the form of a severe penalty for the Spanish company. The group's shares opened Friday's trading session, May 22, 2026, by plummeting as much as -15 percent.

While it remains to be seen how today's trading day will ultimately unfold, it seems clear for now that what fuels the market, it eventually takes back. This is the main takeaway from the stark outcome of the negotiations between Puig and The Estée Lauder. The shares of the Spanish fashion and beauty multinational are on track for what could be their biggest drop to date since its initial public offering on May 3, 2024. On its debut, Puig's shares opened on the stock market at 24.50 euros (28.43 dollars) per share. This initial price has been consistently questioned since then, given the rapid depreciation of its shares.

Until today, one significant date stood out in Puig's trading calendar: September 6, 2024. On that day, following the release of its results for the first half of 2024, the first the company presented after its stock market launch, its shares plummeted. They fell from 24.55 euros at the previous day's close to 21.20 euros by the end of that difficult session. This represented a -13.64 percent drop, which until now was the largest single-day decline recorded for Puig's shares.

This record, clearly a negative one from the perspective of its performance as a listed company, could be surpassed by today's session, Friday, May 22. If the day concludes as it began, Puig's shares will have dropped from Thursday's closing price of 17.64 euros to the 15.25 euros at which they opened this morning. From there, they hit an intraday low of 14.99 euros at around 9:40 am. This value represents a -15 percent plunge from yesterday's closing price. The fall was triggered by the announcement of the unsuccessful end to merger talks with The Estée Lauder. The decline has since “softened” slightly to -13.83 percent, with Puig's shares currently trading at 15.20 euros.

After a two-month stock market climb

From an objective market perspective on the end of negotiations between Puig and Estée Lauder, today's plunge in the Spanish company's shares is seen as a “correction exercise”. This follows a nearly two-month stock market climb for its shares. The revaluation is attributed by markets and investors to the interest shown by the US giant, rather than Puig's latest results. At the end of last April, Puig reported a first quarter of 2026 with sales of 1,215.3 million euros (+0.78 percent).

To quantify this recent stock performance, Puig's shares opened on Monday, March 23, at 14.80 euros per share. Within just 24 hours, following the confirmation of the start of negotiations between Puig and The Estée Lauder at the close of the Spanish stock market that same day, they soared by +18.92 percent. They opened the next day, March 24, at 17.60 euros. The shares climbed further to a peak of 18.89 euros on April 21. While negotiations continued, they stabilised around the 17 euro mark, closing at 17.64 euros this past Thursday, May 21.

In contrast to this climb, today's events represent a sharp market correction for Puig's shares. In any case, based on today's opening price of 15.25 euros, the shares have accumulated a depreciation of -37.75 percent from the 24.50 euro price set for Puig's IPO.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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