Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY; Paris: COTY) has appointed Soraya Benchikh as Chief Financial Officer effective September 1, replacing Laurent Mercier as the global beauty group enters the execution phase of its Coty.Curated restructuring. Benchikh joins after previously serving as CFO of British American Tobacco and holding senior finance and general-management roles across BAT, Diageo, General Electric and Gillette. Coty said Mercier’s departure was not related to any disagreement over the company’s operations, policies or practices.
The new finance chief inherits an unusually complicated financial reset. Coty’s fiscal 2026 revenue declined 2% to $5.81 billion and fell 5% on a like-for-like basis, while adjusted operating income dropped 27% to $626.7 million and adjusted EBITDA fell 22% to $846.9 million. The company reported a $618 million net loss, although free cash flow increased to $348.2 million from $277.6 million and operating cash flow rose to $537.8 million.
Balance-sheet discipline will be equally important. Coty ended June with $3.09 billion of total debt and $2.91 billion of financial net debt, producing a 3.4 times financial leverage ratio. Benchikh is therefore joining not simply to report results but to help determine how divestiture proceeds, cost savings and future investment should be allocated while the group decides what to do with its Consumer Beauty business.
Why is Coty changing CFO during the execution phase of Coty.Curated?
Coty has already begun simplifying its management structure. In July, Executive Chairman and interim CEO Markus Strobel took direct control of Prestige commercial operations, while Prestige research and development, sustainability and supply chain were combined under a single leadership structure. The company described the changes as a way to move commercial decision-making closer to markets and increase accountability.
Benchikh therefore arrives after the operating model has already begun changing. Her role is likely to become central to measuring whether those changes actually improve earnings, cash conversion and returns rather than simply reducing organisational complexity.
The timing also coincides with cost reductions across commercial operations, Consumer Beauty R&D and global brand marketing. Coty is simplifying its innovation calendar, reducing SKU complexity and concentrating investment behind fewer products and brands it considers capable of producing better returns.
That makes the CFO position especially important. A transformation built around “focus” ultimately requires someone to quantify what stops receiving capital, what receives more and whether the resulting savings compensate for revenue that may be deliberately relinquished.
What financial business does Soraya Benchikh inherit?
Fiscal 2026 produced a difficult combination of weaker sales and even weaker profitability. Revenue fell 2% to $5.81 billion, adjusted operating income declined 27% to $626.7 million and adjusted operating margin contracted 370 basis points to 10.8%. Adjusted EBITDA margin fell 380 basis points to 14.6%.
Consumer Beauty was particularly weak, with annual revenue down 3% on a reported basis and 7% like-for-like. Prestige revenue was nearly flat reported but declined 4% like-for-like. Gross-margin pressure came from lower manufacturing absorption, tariffs, promotions and elevated excess and obsolete inventory charges.
The cash-flow picture was much better. Operating cash flow increased from $492.6 million to $537.8 million and free cash flow rose from $277.6 million to $348.2 million despite lower profit. That gives Benchikh a valuable financial lever because strong cash generation can accelerate debt reduction even before earnings fully recover.
Coty’s challenge is therefore not simply generating cash. It is restoring enough revenue quality and margin to make that cash generation sustainable.
Why does $2.9 billion of net debt make the CFO appointment particularly important?
Coty has spent years working to reduce leverage following a period of acquisition-heavy expansion. Financial net debt stood at $2.91 billion at June 30, down from $2.96 billion three months earlier, while leverage was 3.4 times adjusted EBITDA.
Management is actively using portfolio transactions to accelerate that process. Coty monetised its remaining Wella stake for $750 million in December 2025 and agreed in July to transition the Gucci Beauty licence back to Kering for approximately $400 million plus inventory proceeds. Coty said those funds would support debt reduction, reinvestment behind core brands and organisational optimisation.
Benchikh has already identified strengthening the balance sheet and sharpening capital allocation as priorities. That gives investors a fairly direct framework for judging her influence.
Every portfolio decision now has several possible uses for proceeds: reduce debt, support marketing, invest in new licences, restructure operations or eventually return capital. The CFO needs to establish which choice creates the greatest long-term value.
Why could Coty’s Consumer Beauty review reshape the company Benchikh is financing?
Coty has been reviewing Consumer Beauty as part of a broader effort to focus resources on its strongest categories and assets. The business generated approximately $2.0 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue but declined 7% on a like-for-like basis, considerably worse than the 4% decline in Prestige.
The company expects final portfolio decisions around Consumer Beauty by the end of calendar 2026. Those decisions could alter Coty’s revenue mix, manufacturing requirements, debt profile and future investment needs, although the company has not committed publicly to one specific transaction outcome.
Fragrance remains the strategic centre of gravity. Coty previously said Prestige and Consumer Beauty fragrances together represent about 69% of sales, while the Consumer Beauty review is intended to determine how best to unlock value from the remaining portfolio.
Benchikh therefore enters at a point when finance is inseparable from strategy. The balance sheet Coty has at the end of 2027 could look materially different depending on what the board decides to sell, retain or restructure.
What does the Gucci Beauty exit mean for Coty’s future profit base?
The Gucci Beauty agreement provides cash and simplifies the portfolio, but Coty has acknowledged that returning the licence to Kering will create a step-down in sales and profit in fiscal 2028. Management intends to offset part of that impact through growth in core brands, newer portfolio additions and a significant fixed-cost reduction programme.
That creates another test for the new CFO. Selling or relinquishing an asset can improve leverage immediately, but shareholders ultimately need to know whether the company is sacrificing too much future earnings to repair the balance sheet.
Coty plans to lean more heavily on brands including Burberry, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs while developing newer opportunities involving Swarovski, Etro and Marni. The economics of those investments will matter as much as the headline cash received from Gucci.
Benchikh must therefore help management distinguish between simplification that improves returns and simplification that merely makes Coty smaller.
Why does Soraya Benchikh’s BAT background matter?
Benchikh has more than two decades of finance and operating experience across global consumer-goods businesses. At BAT she served not only as CFO but previously as President of BAT France, Area Director for East and Southern Africa and Regional Finance Director for Europe, giving her experience beyond conventional accounting and investor relations.
She left BAT’s CFO position in August 2025, with BAT thanking her for her contribution and providing for transition support through year-end. She now returns to the CFO role at another multinational consumer company facing its own transformation challenge.
Coty is paying Benchikh annual fixed compensation of €1.165 million, with a target annual bonus equal to 150% of salary and a maximum opportunity equal to 300%. Her fiscal 2027 agreement includes a guaranteed minimum bonus at the target level subject to specified continued-employment conditions.
The compensation underscores the importance Coty places on financial leadership during the restructuring period.
What does Coty stock performance say about investor expectations?
Coty shares closed at $2.785 on August 31, essentially unchanged from the $2.79 close on August 24 and only slightly above the $2.75 recorded at the end of July. The stock has traded between approximately $1.82 and $4.56 over the past 52 weeks, leaving it roughly 39% below the annual high despite recovering materially from the low.
That subdued valuation is consistent with the unresolved strategic questions. Investors can see stronger free cash flow and meaningful portfolio proceeds, but adjusted operating profit is still falling sharply and organic sales trends remain weak.
The appointment itself should not be treated as the cause of short-term share movements. The more important point is that Benchikh begins with expectations already relatively low compared with the stock’s 52-week peak.
That can create an opportunity if Coty demonstrates that debt reduction and portfolio simplification are followed by genuine margin recovery.
What should investors watch during Benchikh’s first year as Coty CFO?
The first benchmark is leverage. Financial net debt of $2.91 billion and leverage of 3.4 times give investors clear starting numbers against which to assess debt reduction.
The second is margin. Coty’s adjusted operating margin fell to 10.8% in fiscal 2026, and first-quarter fiscal 2027 guidance points to another 50 to 100 basis points of adjusted gross-margin pressure and a low-teens decline in adjusted EBITDA.
Consumer Beauty provides the third catalyst. A final strategic decision is expected by the end of 2026, potentially making Benchikh one of the most important executives in determining how proceeds and retained assets are financed.
Finally, investors should watch whether free cash flow remains resilient. Coty generated $348.2 million in fiscal 2026 despite substantially lower adjusted operating profit, and it expects more than $300 million of free cash flow during the first half of fiscal 2027.
Soraya Benchikh therefore inherits a finance role where the balance sheet is part of the turnaround rather than a passive record of it. Coty has already begun selling assets, cutting complexity and reviewing an entire business division.
Her challenge is converting those actions into something shareholders have not yet seen consistently: stronger organic growth, recovering margins and lower leverage at the same time.
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