Ron Perelman’s Revlon will pay an $850,000 penalty to settle a regulatory probe into whether it deceived investors during a 2009 tender offer, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday.
Under the tender offer, Perelman’s holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes, which owns a controlling stake in Revlon, asked minority shareholders to exchange their common shares for non-trading preferred shares priced at $5.21 apiece, and carrying a 12.75 percent annual dividend paid over four years — or a total of $7.87.
Perelman would use the stock to pay down Revlon debt.
The trustee for Revlon’s retirement plan had an independent adviser evaluate the voluntary offer — and it found the proposal to be inadequate.
Perelman’s M&F, upon hearing the trustee was seeking a third-party opinion, changed the agreement with the trustee so that it couldn’t share the report with Revlon.
As a result, the independent Revlon board never learned of the negative review and recommended the proposal as fair.
Shareholders exchanged their common shares for the preferred with a net value of $7.87.
Three weeks later, Revlon shares spiked 43 percent, to $8.24, on strong quarterly results.
They closed yesterday at $20.64.
“Going private transactions create opportunities for shareholder abuse and can have coercive effects on minority shareholders,” Antonia Chion, of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.
Revlon didn’t admit or deny any wrongdoing in settling the probe.
In March, a Delaware judge signed off on a $9.2 million settlement with Revlon shareholders over the same transaction.
The shareholders said the cosmetic maker’s directors duped them into exchanging their shares at a lowball price three weeks before the company reported positive financial results.
A Revlon spokeswoman declined to comment on the allegations.