Avon to record fourth-quarter restructuring charges

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Avon Products Inc will record about $58 million in charges in the fourth quarter, now that it has finished approving initiatives that stem from a restructuring plan it laid out two years ago.

The world's largest direct seller of cosmetics outlined a restructuring in February 2009 that is set to be completed by 2012 to 2013.

In 2009, it forecast pretax restructuring charges and other costs of $300 million to $400 million. On Tuesday, Avon said the plan should cost about $300 million to $310 million, before tax, with about $195 million in restructuring charges and some $110 million to $120 million in costs to implement the changes.

Certain restructuring plans were approved last week and no more initiatives related to the plan are expected, Avon said.

It expects to record pretax restructuring charges of about $50 million to $55 million, mainly for employee-related costs. About $52 million of those charges are being recorded in the fourth quarter of 2010. It also expects to record other pretax restructuring costs of about $20 million to $25 million, with about $3 million of those costs recorded in the fourth quarter.

When combined with about $3 million in costs to implement other initiatives already approved from its 2005 and 2009 restructuring programs, Avon will incur total restructuring charges of about $58 million in the fourth quarter, or 9 cents per share.

The company is set to report fourth-quarter results on February 8. Its shares rose 0.2 percent to $28.37 in morning trading.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl, editing by Maureen Bavdek)