FBI looking into suspicious bid for Avon
18 May 2015
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a suspicious buyout bid for cosmetics company Avon Products by purported acquirer PTG Capital Partners, an agency official said on Friday.
According to The Wall Street Journal which had reported the news earlier the probe was in its preliminary stages.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which had launched a separted civil probe, had shared information with the FBI, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The apparently fictitious firm had on Thursday offered to buy the company for almost thrice its market valuation.
According to an SEC filing by PTG Capital Partners, it would pay $18.75 per Avon share, which caused the company's stock to soar 8.42 per cent up as much as 20 per cent.
The SEC's Edgar company database lists PTG as a company incorporated in British Indian Ocean Territory, an archipelago between Africa and Indonesia with no civilian population, according to the CIA's fact book.
According to a spokesman for the Foreign Office the territory had no corporate register in this territory.
Avon, however denied receiving any take over bid.