PARIS – Puig stock soared more than 5 percent Tuesday morning, following the Spanish publication Expansión’s report that the Estée Lauder Cos. has commissioned J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to structure a financing package of about 5 billion euros to fund a deal with Puig.

A Puig spokesperson had no comment on the report, while a Lauder spokesperson could not immediately be reached on Tuesday.

As previously reported, Lauder and Puig announced on March 23 that they are in talks to merge their businesses.

At 1 p.m. CET, Puig stock was trading up 5.6 percent to 18.69 euros.

Expansión said that according to ongoing discussions, Lauder would offer Puig a mixed consideration of cash and shares. The publication did not cite sources of the information by name.

Expansión said Lauder and Puig have identical class share systems that allow their founding families to maintain control of the companies through special shares with greater voting rights. The Puig family’s Class A shares would let them keep 93 percent of voting rights, versus the Lauder family’s 82 percent, thanks to their Class B shares.

If most of the transaction is structured through a special share exchange between the families, that would give Puig a significant stake in Lauder alongside Lauder family members. Since Lauder must offer Puig’s minority shareholders the right to receive cash compensation for their shares, Lauder would have to secure between 3 billion euros and 3.5 billion euros of the takeover bid. The refinancing of Puig’s almost 1.5 billion euros in gross debt would need to be refinanced, too, according to Expansión.

The newspaper also suggested the transaction could involve a share swap or that Puig’s cash might pay down debt.

Expansión said that alongside J.P. Morgan, Lauder is also in talks with other banks.