E.l.f. Beauty prices IPO at $17, above indicated $14-$16 range

Budget cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty Inc priced its initial public offering (IPO) above expectations on Wednesday, raising $141 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Founded in 2004 by father-son entrepreneurs Alan and Joey Shama, e.l.f. Beauty is among the growth-oriented brands that have sprung up in recent years to capitalize on the struggles of some older rivals to capture the interest of millennial shoppers.

e.l.f. priced 8.3 million shares at $17 on Wednesday, above its indicated range of $14 and $16, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the information is not yet public.

A spokeswoman for e.l.f. declined to comment.

e.l.f's IPO comes in one of the year's most active weeks for U.S. IPO offerings. There have been 64 U.S. IPOs year-to-date, nearly half the 122 IPOs that had priced this time last year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

On Tuesday, ad tech company The Trade Desk priced its IPO at the high-end of its price expectations, after having raised that range earlier in the week.

e.l.f. Beauty, whose acronym stands for eyes, lips and face, sells its products online, in retail outlets such as Target Corp, and in select standalone locations. Its cost-conscious consumers can buy lipsticks for as little as $3.

Through June, the company had sales of about $50 million, up 33 percent from the year prior.

The company has said it will use proceeds from its IPO to pay down its roughly $204 million of debt and for general corporate purposes.

In 2014 e.l.f was acquired by TPG Growth, the middle market arm of private equity firm TPG Capital LP, for between $200 million and $300 million, sources said at the time.

Young cosmetics companies have been attracting attention from bigger rivals and investment firms recently. In 2014, NYX Cosmetics was acquired by French cosmetic giant L'Oréal SA, while last year Too Faced Cosmetics LLC was acquired by investment firm General Atlantic LLC.

Shares of e.l.f. are scheduled to start trading on NYSE on Thursday under the symbol "Elf."
JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, Piper Jaffray companies and Wells Fargo & Co are the joint bookrunners the offering.