Investor increases stake in Tiffany

An activist investor is buying up shares of another long-standing, well-known U.S. retail jewelry chain.

Nelson Peltz, through his New York-based company Trian Fund Management GP, LLC, increased his stake in Tiffany and Co. to 7.9 percent, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows.

The filing shows Peltz, through his Trian companies, now owns a total of 10.7 million shares of stock in the iconic jewelry company.

Another activist investor, Richard Breeden, has also been buying stock in a jewelry store chain recently; he now owns an 18.1 percent share of the struggling Zale Corp.

In other Tiffany news on Friday, the company announced it is expanding its stock-repurchase program and authorized the repurchase of up to $500 million in common stock.

The increase enables Tiffany to repurchase up to $637 million of its common stock through Jan. 11, 2011.

The board's last increase took place in August 2006, when it authorized the repurchase of up to $813 million of stock through Dec. 31, 2009.

Tiffany has approximately 127 million shares outstanding.

Tiffany also announced the opening of two new stores in Japan: a 5,000-square-foot boutique in Tokyo, and a 1,700-square-foot one in Fukuoka.

With these openings, the New York-based luxury retail jeweler now operates 56 stores in Japan.
Source: nationaljewelernetwork

Study: Jewelry top 'investment of passion'

Jewelry represents the third-strongest category for "investments of passion" for high-net-worth individuals, according to a new report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

The 2007 World Wealth Report finds investments of passion have become an important portfolio allocation for the world's 9.5 million high-net-worth individuals. Such investments include luxury collectibles (automobiles, boats and aircraft), jewelry, art, sports-related investments (professional teams, sailing and race horses) and other collectibles categories (wines, antiques, coins, etc.).

Luxury collectibles were the most popular investment of passion in 2006, accounting for 26 percent of all high-net-worth individuals' investments in this category.

The art market ranked second, accounting for 20 percent of all high-net-worth individuals' investments of passion. Wealthy investors—even those without a passion for collecting—increasingly see art as a method of diversifying their portfolios, given the low correlation between art prices and the cyclicality of stocks, bonds and real estate, according to the report.

Jewelry accounted for 16 percent of high-net-worth individuals' investments of passion internationally and 18 percent in North America.
Source: nationaljewelernetwork