Bermuda-based RSL Communications, Ltd. has completed a public equity offering of 7 million shares of its Class A common stock.

The shares were priced at $23.875, generating total proceeds of about $160 million to the company.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. was the lead underwriter for the offering. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Warburg Dillon Read LLC also participated.

The offer's completion came after the firm's former vice chairman, Andrew Gaspar, last week put up 400,000 shares of his Class A common stock, cutting his stake to 7.9 percent.

Gaspar and his family company reduced their holdings in the international long-distance telephone service company to 1.46 million Class A shares from 1.86 million, according to the investment group's Schedule 13D amendment filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC filing said the Gaspar family company, New York-based Bukfenc Inc., sold shares on the open market November 25 for between $24.06 and $24.31 apiece, in total worth around $9.7 million.

The SEC filing also disclosed that two investment funds that Gaspar manages with RSL's founder, cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder, are being liquidated.

One fund, in which Lauder is a majority owner, holds 261,407 Class B common shares of RSL. The other, of which Lauder owns a substantial interest, holds 909,090 Class B shares.

Those shares aren't included in the holdings of Gaspar, who resigned as vice chairman last May.

Class B shares, which get ten votes apiece, are convertible one-for-one into the publicly traded Class A, which get one vote.

RSL Class A shares traded higher yesterday, selling at around $23.50. The company went public in September a year ago at $22.

The company operates in a score of countries, offering phone cards and Internet-based telecommunications along with other long distance service.

RSL is a global facilities-based telecommunications company that provides international services, including long distance, calling card, private line, value added and Internet-based services for business, consumers and other carriers worldwide.

The company was rated as one of the top ten growth companies in Business Week's INFO TECH 100.

President and CEO Itzhak Fisher said, "RSL Communications is extremely pleased that, given the current volatility of the market, we were able to complete our offering quickly, with participants from investment communities in the US and throughout the world.

"Since our initial public offering in September of 1997, the company has made great strides in accomplishing its objective of taking advantage of global telecommunications deregulation.

"To date, RSL Communications has established operations on four continents in 20 countries that account for more than 70 percent of the world's international telecommunications traffic.

"The enthusiastic response that we experienced from investors validates our strategy.''