FT NUMIS THG21 Nov 2021 14:14
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Numis: return to sender
A spat between THG and Numis over an email the investment bank sent to institutional clients is said to have pitted Numis against a former colleague.
As first revealed by Sky News, Numis last week sent, then retracted, an email making reference to “some irregularities in accounting” at Matthew Moulding’s ecommerce group. A follow-up explained that Numis “had not identified, and does not believe, THG to have any accounting irregularities”, saying the terminology used “does not represent the views of Numis’ research or the views of our research analysts”.
According to insiders, the first email was sent by a junior on the sales team who had joined less than a month earlier. The new starter had misinterpreted the already published opinions of lead analyst Simon Bowler around probable sum-of-the-parts values and the potential for Ingenuity, THG’s technology outsourcing division, to disappoint, they said. Numis voluntarily reported itself to the Financial Conduct Authority and began a review of safety checks around its non-research client communications.
Among those to push for contrition from Numis was Iain McDonald, THG’s longest serving non-executive director, according to a person familiar with the companies. McDonald was a retail and ecommerce analyst at Numis between 2002 and 2007, whose dedication to the firm was such that he once owned a NUM1S personalised car number plate. His technology and ecommerce advisory firm, Belerion Capital, remains a Numis client and was on the distribution list for the fateful email.
Numis said in a statement that it had “apologised publicly for our error” after its memo “contained some inaccuracies”. THG declined to comment.
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