Today’s Times14 Jun 2022 08:18
Investors are betting that the tentative takeover approaches for THG will come to nothing ahead of a “put up or shut up” bid deadline this Thursday.
The embattled ecommerce company, which has lost three-quarters of its value since its listing two years ago, delivered a fresh twist last month when it revealed Iain McDonald, one of its board directors since 2010, was trying to buy the business.
McDonald’s firm, Belerion, has already tabled a 170p-a-share proposal in a consortium with King Street Capital Management, a New York fund that has acquired a number of shorts and contracts for difference to hedge itself almost entirely against future share price falls.
Meanwhile, Nick Candy, the property tycoon who is also friends with Matt Moulding, founder of THG, disclosed last month that he was also in the early stages of considering an offer. Since then there has been silence, even though McDonald and Moulding were sitting at the same boardroom table at THG’s annual shareholder meeting last week.
Shares in THG fell as much as 11 per cent yesterday before closing down 7½p, or 5.9 per cent, to 116½p — a third below Belerion’s offer.