What's Next for Coty?

Coty Inc. has tapped Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Chaseas lead underwriters for an initial public offering, which is expected to be priced this summer or early fall, people familiar with the matter said.

The selection follows the withdrawal of Coty’s $10.7 billion takeover bid for Avon. The bid was pulled earlier this week.

Coty has 12,000 employees and three corporate headquarter offices in New York, Paris and Geneva. Its is a unit of privately held Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH, which is based in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Coty, which has a substantial portfolio of widely known brands includes fragrance, color cosmetics, skin and body care— reported that it tallied net sales of $4.1 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011.

In 2010, Coty made several key acquisitions including OPI, a prestige nail care company; Philosophy, a premier skin care and cosmetics company; TJoy, a leading Chinese skin care company; and Dr. Scheller Cosmetics AG, manufacturer of some of Germany’s most popular makeup and skin care brands. Those moves grabbed the attention of industry outsiders and in January 2011, Berkshire Partners LLC, the Boston-based private equity firm, and Rh?ne, a private equity firm with offices in New York and London, made minority equity investments in Coty. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.