LinkedIn Post6 Aug 2025 07:39
“How can I ever stop this?”
This was the question I asked one of London’s most senior bankers, after yet another call about Numis’ underhanded actions against THG — led by co-CEOs Alex Ham and Ross Mitchinson, along with Head Analyst Simon Bowler. Their efforts were becoming increasingly outrageous.
It had become a daily occurrence — bankers, investors, and whistleblowers contacting us with news of Numis’ latest attempts to discredit both THG and me. Following our IPO, Numis leadership was p**ssed. One investor told me he’d heard — directly from the “horse’s mouth” — that Numis planned to “take THG shares to zero.”
Their motives? That’s for another day (and a few LinkedIn posts)…
At the very last moment before our IPO, Alex Ham contacted me asking for a favour: to include Numis on the banking roster. This late-stage inclusion earned them a share of over £30m in IPO fees, and helped them position for future mandates. I agreed — in good faith.
Like many in the City, I’d heard stories about Numis’ reputation. But what followed the IPO was worse than anything I’d imagined.
Today, THG announced the sale of Claremont Ingredients Limited, a flavour business within our Nutrition division, for £103m. It’s a business few outside THG even knew we owned — a small part of the group, but like so many other Beauty & Nutrition manufacturing businesses we own, very valuable nonetheless.
We acquired Claremont in late 2020 for £52m — a long-standing supplier to Europe’s leading nutrition brands, including Myprotein. The acquisition has been a huge success: it’s paid back most of our investment already, and now we’ve sold it for double what we paid, less than 5 years later.
But beyond the numbers, Claremont was pivotal in launching Myprotein’s global licensing model, unlocking a long list of international collaborations.
Apparently, Numis saw things differently.
That senior banker had called me on that day to tell me Numis was allegedly running a boiler room operation - a room full of junior staff sending out “scripts” to hedge funds and investors, urging them to aggressively short THG shares.
The script being circulated on the day of that call? That Claremont didn’t exist. Instead it was a fake company headed by a former THG employee, acting on my behalf.
The suggestion was that I’d effectively embezzled £52m from THG by making the acquisition. ‘Nobody would pay £52m for such a small company” was one claim.
Obviously this was all utter rubbish, and so I asked the banker: “How can I ever stop this?”
The banker’s response was chilling: “You can’t.” 😯
I despise bullies — especially pretend posh ones.
Today’s announcement puts the Claremont “script” to bed: a respected major global player just paid £103m for that very same "fake" business.
And yes, there are plenty more Numis “scripts” we’ll be addressing — in the
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