By Anuja Bharat Mistry

May 16 (Reuters) - Michael Burry's Scion Asset

Management has doubled its stake in Estee Lauder ( EL ), at a

time when the beauty giant's new CEO is steering the company

through a transformation to overcome weak demand in key markets

such as North America and China.

The U.S. investor, whose bets against the U.S. housing

market before the 2008 financial crisis were chronicled in the

movie "The Big Short," now owns 200,000 shares of Estee valued

at $13.2 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

That is double the number of shares it held at the end of

December last year.

"Burry's bet suggests belief in Estee Lauder's ( EL ) ability to

reclaim its status as a beauty powerhouse in an increasingly

competitive global market," said Angeli Gianchandani, a global

brand marketing expert at New York University.

Since joining the company in January, Estee CEO Stephane de

La Faverie has ramped up product launches and introduced new

luxury price tiers in an attempt to revive demand after several

quarters of slow growth.

"I view this as a positive for Estee Lauder ( EL ) amid the CEO's

effort to turn around the business, though the position size of

the investment is not very large," said Morningstar analyst Dan

Su.

The recently announced 90-day truce in the global trade war

between Washington and Beijing brings U.S. tariffs on China down

to 30% from an eye-watering 145% level. The move is expected to

ease some pressure on companies with a big exposure to China.

Asia-Pacific region, which includes China, accounted for

roughly 31% of Estee Lauder's ( EL ) total sales in fiscal 2024.

Burry slashed the number of companies in his portfolio by

roughly half, to seven, the regulatory filing showed.

Estee's stock has lost 15% of its value so far this year.

Its shares were up about 2% on Friday.

Scion could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Anuja Bharat Mistry in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil

D'Silva)