Coty names new CFO as it navigates a rocky quarter

Coty has appointed Soraya Benchikh as chief financial officer, bringing more than two decades of international finance and general management experience to a company still working through operational strain. She will report to Markus Strobel, who is serving as both executive chairman and interim chief executive, underlining how thin Coty's top leadership bench has become as it searches for permanent direction.

The hire lands alongside a weak fourth-quarter financial update, continuing a pattern of soft results that has dogged Coty's fragrance and colour cosmetics businesses over recent quarters. Mass-market cosmetics have been particularly pressured by weaker US consumer spending and inventory corrections at retail, while the group's premium fragrance licences, including names such as Gucci and Burberry, carry high expectations that have been harder to meet in a choppy demand environment.

A new CFO reporting into an interim chief executive is an unusual structure, and it signals that Coty's board is prioritising financial discipline and stability while the search for a permanent CEO continues. Investors will be watching whether Benchikh's arrival brings tighter cost control and clearer guidance, and whether Strobel's dual role is a placeholder or a sign that Coty intends to keep executive power concentrated for longer than usual.

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