By Anuja Bharat Mistry
(Reuters) -Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management has doubled its stake in Estee Lauder, at a time when the beauty giant’s new CEO is steering the company through a transformation to overcome weak demand in key markets such as North America and China.
The U.S. investor, whose bets against the U.S. housing market before the 2008 financial crisis were chronicled in the movie “The Big Short,” now owns 200,000 shares of Estee valued at $13.2 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. That is double the number of shares it held at the end of December last year.
“Burry’s bet suggests belief in Estee Lauder’s ability to reclaim its status as a beauty powerhouse in an increasingly competitive global market,” said Angeli Gianchandani, a global brand marketing expert at New York University.
Since joining the company in January, Estee CEO Stephane de La Faverie has ramped up product launches and introduced new luxury price tiers in an attempt to revive demand after several quarters of slow growth.
“I view this as a positive for Estee Lauder amid the CEO’s effort to turn around the business, though the position size of the investment is not very large,” said Morningstar analyst Dan Su.
The recently announced 90-day truce in the global trade war between Washington and Beijing brings U.S. tariffs on China down to 30% from an eye-watering 145% level. The move is expected to ease some pressure on companies with a big exposure to China.
Asia-Pacific region, which includes China, accounted for roughly 31% of Estee Lauder’s total sales in fiscal 2024.
Burry slashed the number of companies in his portfolio by roughly half, to seven, the regulatory filing showed.
Estee’s stock has lost 15% of its value so far this year. Its shares were up about 2% on Friday.
Scion could not be immediately reached for comment.
(Reporting by Anuja Bharat Mistry in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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