INVESTOR INCREASES STAKE IN TIFFANY

January 18, 2008

New York—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.