Deals
That Dubious Bid for Avon Sent Other Cosmetics Stocks Soaring Too
Avon Products Inc. are arranged for a photograph in New York.
Scott Eells/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Shares of Avon Products climbed as much as 20 percent today, after a company called 'PTG Capital Partners' submitted a filing to the SEC of an offer to buy the company.
Suspicions were immediately raised given the massive premium on offer ($18.75 a share versus Avon's closing price on Wednesday of $6.67) and the fact that no one had ever heard of the self-described "global private equity investment firm." Matters weren't helped by an SEC filing which apparently misspelled "PTG" as "TPG" twice, and also cut and pasted from the latter firm's website. Calls to the company went unanswered and the law firm responsible for making the filing does not appear to exist.