Business

Perelman’s Revlon fined $850K by SEC

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.