Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
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Financial times seemed to hint that THG put the Belerion bid out without permission or something, whereas Sunday Times says it was prompted by the takeover panel who asked the various parties to clarify their positions after speculation by betaville.
p2
"As THG’s problems piled up, private equity giants Advent International, Apollo and Leonard Green all ran the rule over the business. Belerion Capital cannot compete with that sort of clout — but McDonald enjoys a personal relationship with Moulding that other potential suitors do not.
McDonald is a well-connected figure in the e-commerce industry who spearheads the UK Digital Business Association, a trade body including Ocado and Asos, which is pushing back against the creation of an online sales tax.
In his time as chief investment officer at William Currie Group, McDonald led the firm’s investment in THG in the company’s first big funding round in 2010. He has served as a non-executive director on the board ever since and personally owns 2.51 million THG shares, currently worth £3.64 million.
“Iain has been ever-present and is on very good terms with Matt. He knows THG as well as anyone,” a source said. Spokespeople for Belerion and THG both declined to say whether McDonald had recused himself or been stood down from the board of THG.
McDonald is understood to have been dumbfounded by the collapse in THG’s share price — but acquiring the business would be a deal of far greater magnitude than anything he or Belerion have previously undertaken.
Belerion runs a fund that invests in listed e-commerce companies as well as a private fund targeting start-ups in the sector. The investment fund, which owns 4.3 million shares in THG, is advised by Asos co-founder Nick Robertson.
THG’s decision to reject Belerion and King Street’s offer — pitched at a 79 per cent premium to THG’s share price before it originally disclosed it had received numerous takeover approaches in April — may divide THG’s shareholders, some of whom bought in after the slump in its shares. There may not be a better time to sell in the coming months, either. A brutal squeeze on disposable incomes, soaring costs and a swing of trade back towards high street shops have combined to hammer online retailers.
THG warned in April that underlying profits this year would be similar to last year’s £161.3 million, compared with forecasts for £206 million.
City sources are sceptical that Candy’s interest will progress into a full offer. The developer behind London’s One Hyde Park has in the past been linked with a takeover of Covent Garden-owner Capital & Counties and, more recently, Chelsea Football Club — only for neither to materialise.
After jumping by 24.5 per cent on Friday, THG’s shares closed at £1.45 — a 14.7 per cent discount to Belerion and King Street’s bid, implying the market is sceptical that a deal will be done at all. Moudling, ultimately, will have the final say."
Mostly a nothing article but will post here anyway:
"A sales person at investment bank Numis fired off an incendiary email to clients last November. The message urged investors to sell shares in the troubled online beauty retailer THG, citing alleged “accounting irregularities”.
It is fair to assume the author failed to check the recipient list before hitting “send”. If they had done, they would have seen the name Iain McDonald, a board director at THG for 12 years.
Unsurprisingly, McDonald took umbrage at the email. Numis subsequently sent a corrected version, apologised and reported itself to the Financial Conduct Authority.
McDonald has had a front-row seat for this corporate soap opera. Now, after a torrid 20 months on the stock market, Belerion Capital, where McDonald is chief investment officer, has teamed up with King Street Capital to table a £2 billion bid to take the firm formerly known as The Hut Group private. Morgan Stanley is lined up for debt financing.
On Thursday evening, THG — which owns brands such as Myprotein, Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty — disclosed it had rejected the “highly preliminary” 170p-per-share offer. This came 15 minutes after Candy Ventures, investment vehicle of property tycoon Nick Candy, issued a separate statement saying it was in the “very early stages” of mulling its own offer for THG.
The flurry of announcements was prompted by the Takeover Panel, which had asked the various companies to clarify their positions after financial blog Betaville published rumours of deal activity.
Whether the interest in THG progresses will depend ultimately on co-founder and boss Matt Moulding, who holds a golden share giving him the right to veto any hostile takeover.
Moulding has done little to hide his disdain for life on the public markets: in an interview with GQ magazine last year, he said the experience of being listed “just sucked from start to finish”. The question is whether he is fed up enough to swallow his pride by endorsing a bid that will inevitably value THG at a fraction of the £5.4 billion achieved at its float in September 2020.
THG’s shares initially soared after listing, taking its value above £7.25 billion and triggering a controversial £830 million share-based payout for Moulding, the largest shareholder with a 22 per cent stake. But they crashed back down to earth amid mounting concerns over THG’s light-touch corporate governance, its weak cashflow, and whether Ingenuity, the e-commerce platform that THG sells to other online retailers, could ever meet lofty expectations.
In an effort to appease the City, Moulding brought in Lord (Charles) Allen as chairman and pledged to relinquish his golden share — which he has yet to do."