Companies and Brands

Turning Point Brands Gears Up for IPO

Chris Lange

Published: December 21, 2015 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:52 pm

Turning Point Brands has filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No pricing details were given in the filing, but the offering is valued up to $125 million. The company intends to file on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TPB.

The sole book-running manager and underwriter for this offering is FBR.

This is a leading independent provider of other tobacco products (OTP) in the United States. Turning Point sells a wide range of products across the OTP spectrum, including moist snuff, loose leaf chewing tobacco, premium cigarette papers, make-your-own cigar wraps and cigar smoking tobacco, cigars, liquid vapor products and tobacco vaporizer products.

The company does not sell cigarettes. It estimates that the OTP industry generated approximately $10.0 billion in manufacturer revenue in 2014. In contrast to manufactured cigarettes, which have experienced declining sales for decades, based on data published by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the OTP industry is demonstrating increased consumer appeal.

Turning Point currently ships to in excess of 900 direct wholesale customers with an additional 240 secondary, indirect wholesalers in the United States that carry and sell these products. As of July 11, 2015, the products are available in over 176,000 U.S. retail locations, which, with the addition of retail stores in Canada, brings the total North American retail presence to an estimated 200,000 points of distribution.
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In the filing, the company described its sales as follows:

We achieved net sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and the year ended December 31, 2014 of $150.5 million and $200.3 million, respectively. For the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and the year ended December 31, 2014, our Adjusted EBITDA was $38.8 million and $48.8 million, respectively, and we had net income of $6.8 million and a net loss of $29.4 million, respectively.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay its senior notes and other debt obligations. The remainder will be put toward working capital and general corporate purposes.