April 29 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-listed L'Occitane

International's chairman and controlling shareholder

will take the French skin-care firm private, valuing it at a

maximum of HK$13.91 billion ($1.78 billion), the company said on

Monday.

Reuters reported in early April that L'Occitane's Chairman

Reinold Geiger was in advanced talks with investors and lenders

about the deal, with U.S. private equity giant Blackstone

looking to provide debt financing to fund the deal.

As part of the deal, Austrian billionaire Geiger's

investment holding company L'Occitane Groupe in Luxembourg will

pay HK$34 for each share not already owned, representing a 30.8%

premium to the stock's last close of HK$26 on Feb. 5.

L'Occitane Groupe owned 72.39% of the cosmetics company at

March-end.

The investment holding firm does not intend to increase the

offer price for the deal, which comes a few months after Geiger

shelved a buyout attempt for the company.

Geiger plans to finance a part of the deal using external

debt facilities acquired from affiliates of Blackstone and

Goldman Sachs Group.

L'Occitane International's shares, which were halted on

April 9, will resume trading on Tuesday.

J.P. Morgan will be the financial adviser for L'Occitane

Groupe.

($1 = 7.8265 Hong Kong dollars)