LAUDER FAMILY GETS $476M FROM SALE OF 8.1M SHARES
Byline: Thomas J. Ryan
NEW YORK — Members of the Lauder family realized $476 million from the sale of 8.1 million shares of Estee Lauder Cos.
The offering was priced late Tuesday at 60 7/8, and the deal is expected to close over the next few days, a Lauder spokeswoman said.
Leonard Lauder, chairman and chief executive officer, sold 757,970 shares, realizing $44.4 million. William P. Lauder, president of Origins Natural Resources, sold 470,000 shares, realizing $27.5 million. Gary M. Lauder sold 454,545 shares to realize $26.6 million. Gary, who does not have a job at the firm, and William are the sons of the chairman.
The Estee Lauder 1994 Trust, established by the family, sold 5.4 million shares, realizing $316.7 million.
The RSL 4201 Trust — established by Ronald S. Lauder, chairman of Clinique laboratories and Estee Lauder International — sold 2.7 million shares, realizing $158 million. Trusts for Aerin Lauder and Jane Lauder, Ronald’s daughters, sold 1.5 million shares, realizing $88 million.
Aerin Lauder is director of creative product development at Estee Lauder Worldwide and Jane Lauder is promotions manager at Clinique Laboratories Inc.
The remainder was sold by trusts established by Leonard Lauder. LAL Family Partners LP sold 833,333 shares and realized $48.7 million. In addition, The LAL 4002 Trust divested 385,000 shares for $22.6 million.
The Lauder family will continue to own 69.9 percent of the outstanding stock and 94.4 percent of the voting power.
Shares of Lauder closed at 61 5/16, up 7/16, Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company went public in November 1995 at $26 a share.
Lauder said 4.03 million of the shares were sold directly to the public as common stock and the remaining 4.07 million through hybrid equity securities known as TRACES, or Trust Automatic Common Exchange Securities. At their maturity in three years, the TRACES will be automatically exchanged for class-A common shares or cash at the election of the participating members of the Lauder family.