South Korea’s K-beauty and K-food M&A trajectories diverge sharply

Recent M&A activity in South Korea shows a marked divergence between the prospering K-beauty sector and the struggling K-food market. While the cosmetics sector attracted sizeable private-equity investments driven by global demand and beauty-tech adoption, food-manufacturing deals lagged on weak exports and cost pressures. Analysts point out that the K-beauty firms benefit from strong brand equity and online channel penetration, contrasting with legacy food players facing margin contraction. The trend may signal broader themes of digital-brand growth vs industrial headwinds in Asia’s consumer-goods space, prompting investors to lean selectively.