Back in March 2019, Forbes announced that Kylie Jenner officially joined its Billionaires List and was featured on the cover. There was even a debate about whether she was self-made. 

Now, Forbes has recalculated Kylie’s net worth — and says it is just under $900 million. It is still an impressive number, but required the magazine to revoke the beauty mogul’s “billionaire” title.

Through public financial documents released by Coty over the past six months, Forbes discovered that Kylie’s business is significantly smaller than the numbers that Kylie Cosmetics had reported to various media outlets. (And these reports possibly influenced financial analysts’ foecasts for the brand.)  

Did Coty pay too much for a ‘celebrity’ brand?

Last November, Coty purchased a majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics for $600 million, valuing it at  $1.2 billion, according to reports.

Referring to the deal, the Forbes article states, “Wall Street tends to think Coty paid too much to begin with and there is no way to realistically peg Kylie’s net worth above a billion—despite her massive cash-out.”

Forbes alledges that the Jenners lied about Kylie Cosmetics’ revenue every year since 2016 — inflating both sales and profits. 

Page Six states, “Forbes said it was given documentation showing the brand made $360 million in 2018 and $330 million the year before. But in reality, filings…showed Kylie Cosmetics did $125 million in 2018.”
 
The article adds, “The alleged cosmetic cover-up was the worst kept secret among the beauty industry, the source told The Post.”

People Magazine obtained an exclusive statement from Kylie Jenner’s attorney, Michael Kump, who says the Forbes article is “filled with outright lies.” He is demanding a retraction. 

However, Forbes stands by its article. Forbes spokesman Matthew Hutchison tells Bloomberg that the article was an “extensively-reported investigation…triggered by newly filed documents that revealed glaring discrepancies between information privately supplied to journalists and information publicly supplied to shareholders.”

Photos: via Instagram – @kyliecosmetics and @kyliejenner / and a screenshot via Twitter @KylieJenner

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