April 10 (Reuters) - Phibro Animal Health Corp's initial public offering was priced at $15 per share, anunderwriter said, below its expected price range of $16-$18 pershare.
The IPO raised about $176.5 million with the offering of11.765 million shares of Class A common stock.
Backed by UK private equity firm 3i Group Plc,Teaneck, New Jersey-based Phibro is selling 7.352 million sharesin the offering. The rest are being offered by sellingstockholder Mayflower, which is managed by 3i.
The shares are expected to start trading on Friday on theNasdaq under the symbol "PAHC."
BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are the leadunderwriters for the offering.
Phibro is a maker and marketer of animal health andnutrition products that are sold under the brands such asStafac, Nicarb, and OmniGen-AF.
Phibro's net income fell to $8.1 million from $14.7 millionfor the six months ended Dec. 31. Revenue rose about 3 percentto $334.97 million.
Last year, Pfizer Inc's animal health subsidiaryZoetis Inc, which sells drug products and other servicesfor livestock and pets, raised $2.2 billion in its IPO. Zoetisstock has climbed about 12 percent since then. (Reporting by Avik Das and Arnab Sen in Bangalore; Editing byGopakumar Warrier)