P.M. BRIEFING : Avon Wants Investment Voided

Avon Products Inc. has asked a federal court to void the purchases of Avon shares made by Chartwell Associates, an unfriendly investor group that has acquired a 16% stake in the door-to-door cosmetics company.

Chartwell, whose members include representatives of Avon rival Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. of Dallas, the Fisher real estate family of New York and oil heir Gordon Getty, has purchased more than 9 million shares of Avon common stock for about $312 million over the last six months.

In a suit filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan late Monday, Avon alleges that Chartwell made “false, incomplete and misleading” public disclosures in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the group’s purchase of Avon shares.

The “true, undisclosed purpose for their investment in Avon is to acquire an unfair competitive advantage for the benefit of Mary Kay . . . at the expense of Avon, its employees and its public shareholders,” the suit said.