Elf Beauty is facing ugly shareholder battle
e.l.f Beauty, which bills itself as "100% vegan and cruelty-free" is facing an ugly battle with its biggest outside shareholder who wants the company to sell itself.
In a securities filing released Tuesday, Mario Cibelli of investment firm Marathon Partners highlighted the makeup brand’s discounted shares, which were hovering around the $18 level.
“You and the board do not have the luxury of ignoring the share price and the company’s large discount to private market value,” Cibelli said. “Given the wide discount, a sale of the company would be the most attractive outcome for shareholders at this time.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELF | E.L.F. BEAUTY INC. | 130.71 | +1.19 | +0.92% |
Cibelli owns an 8.9 percent stake in the company whose name stands for eyes, lips, face.
He previously complained about e.l.f management under Silicon Valley investor board member Bill McGlashan, according to a report in the New York Post. McGlashan was arrested this year in the college admissions scandal on federal charges he agreed to pay $250,000 for a fake football profile to get his son into the University of Southern California.
He plead not guilty to those charges but was replaced on e.l.f's board.
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Meanwhile, Marathon raised additional concerns that McGlashan’s investment firm, TPG Growth, sold 5 million shares of the company in a 2017 secondary offering but did not disclose to investors that the company used North Korean materials to make some of its products.
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e.l.f did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX Business.