Member Info for Elmsley

How do you see the order book?

I haven't been on this board or posted for a while, but the more people who can post questions or, even better, turn up at the AGM and have their voice heard the better. We need to make some noise. I've just sent this to Agm@thg.com.

The following is a question I would like answered by the Chairman.

I am a shareholder holding c. [xxx] million shares in THG and have suffered substantial paper losses with this shareholding, significantly more than with any other investment I’ve ever made. Enough is enough.

Matthew Moulding has presided over a 97% decrease in shareholder value since IPO. This must surely be unprecedented in the history of the London Stock Exchange. In any other company he would have been long gone, and we would have a new CEO who doesn’t annoy the City quite so much with his regular LinkedIn rants and humble brags. Take a look at all the fundraisings where he has screwed ordinary shareholders with pre-emption rights being disapplied and most recently a convertible loan, all in an attempt to ensure he retains as much control over THG as possible. He is completely untrustworthy. And all of this not long after he took Ingenuity private at a fraction of its true value (without any independent assessment or shareholder vote), knowing many shareholders couldn’t legally or wouldn’t want to roll into a private company. He is now more conflicted than ever before, his reputation as a businessman in tatters and his overpaid “independent” directors completely invisible. A complete breach of their fiduciary duties as directors - how can they possibly be acting in the best interests of ALL shareholders, by not removing the CEO who has presided over such monumental shareholder value destruction since IPO, and down more than 50% since the Ingenuity demerger – a corporate action which was supposed to help the share price. At what point do they say “enough is enough”? And what of the shortest lived FTE 250 index inclusion on record? How embarrassing! How shambolic! How utterly incompetent. So my question is this: when is the board going to act in accordance with its fiduciary duties and remove Matthew Moulding as CEO and seek to get the share price back on track?

I really don't understand why ATYM didn't get included and the likes of THG did. Someone please enlighten me.

Just to be clear guys, my point to Pearls was that there was absolutely no way he or anyone else could have categorically said yesterday morning that THG "are in". It's simply not possible. There were several other companies with higher market caps than THG that did not make it into the FTSE250 eg Atalaya and JP Morgan European Growth & Income which, had they done so, would have meant THG would have been bumped down the list and not made the cut as if three companies leave the FTSE250 only three companies can join it - obviously. It was the categoric statement that THG was going to be in that I objected to. As a long-suffering shareholder though, I am delighted that they've made it in. Hope that clears up any confusion!

Looks to me like we missed it - ASOS’s market cap £10m too high to allow us in, even though ASOS’s market cap is £70m lower than THG’s…

https://www.stockchallenge.co.uk/ftse.php

Onsolidground, not sure if there is an exemption for ASOS. I hope not.

Openview, Pearls has completely oversimplified the process for inclusion into the FTSE250. It's not just a case of comparing one company's market cap with another. You only get in if either you automatically qualify (THG doesn't as its market cap falls short) or there are a sufficient number of companies which are being automatically demoted (let's say there are 4) AND THG is one of the top 4 companies by market cap which are then eligible for inclusion. And even then, there are all sorts of liquidity/free float and other criteria for inclusion. Pearls simply doesn't have enough evidence to be able to categorically say THG is in. I wish I could show you my share portfolio statement. I want THG to rocket more than anyone!

But ASOS needs to fall below no. 376 in market cap to automatically fall out of the FTSE250 for THG to then get in. You don't just compare market caps. Let's see what happens as it's impossible, well time-consuming, to compare everyone's market cap and then rank them. Need to let the LSE do that

The actual review of the FTSE UK Index Series will be conducted using data as at market close on Tuesday 4th March 2025. Confirmed rebalance changes will be announced after market close on Wednesday 5th March 2025.

I don't think the THG share price did well enough on its own to gain automatic entry, but ASOS has fallen considerably today and may be automatically out in which case THG should be in. It looks like it's a very close call.

He'd be helping himself by trying to avoid being removed. those with big pockets could easily move the share price up today of all days whilst simultaneously moving down the other potential contistutents - JEGI being the obvious one

Who knows? It won't take much more of an increase (1.5p) for us to get into the FTSE250. If I were MM and had sufficient liquid funds, knowing non-inclusion in the FTSE250 is likely going to lead to the nail in my coffin, I would save my funds until the last minute and then start buying heavily to get us over the FTSE250 inclusion threshold. We will know soon enough

I think my last post must have been deleted as I used the word "id*ot". haha. Can't be bothered typing the whole message again, but the key point is if MM is launch a cash offer to all shareholders (regular offer or scheme), his shares are excluded from the calculation (75% on a scheme, 90% to take private and squeeze out minority shareholders who do not accept the offer). His shares did count on the demerger as he was not offering cash to all shareholders. All shareholders were allowed to take THG shares or Ingenuity shares. All shareholders were treated exactly the same - identical offer made to everyone. This is why he was entitled to vote on the demerger. Last post from me today in response to Pearls as he/she is winding me up too much with his [insert your own noun which won't get my post deleted].

There were safeguards for shareholders in that all shareholders were treated equally - you are offered the same deal as MM. You could have gone into Ingenuity alongside him, just as I did. Admittedly, some shareholders cannot do that (the big funds) or don't want to do that as it is a fairly illiquid asset, so it was a clever structure for MM. He could come up with the same structure for Beauty and/or Nutrition now but the board will/should be all over it and his past comments on valuation will not help such that there will have to be a substantial premium

Yesimabeliever, not sure I ever said I am a corporate lawyer, but do know my way around this stuff. I'm not too worried about MM wanting to take this private and screwing other shareholders, as the board will have difficulty approving a takeover unless there is a signifcant premium involved given past commments about 170p signficantly undervaluing the company. If MM does want to take the company private he will need to launch an offer for the shares he doesn't already own and will need to get over 50% for the offer to go through. I suspect he will need quite a bit of financing and the banks will likely want to see him take the company private in which case he will need 90% acceptances (excluding his own shares). If he launches a scheme of arrangement, he needs 75% acceptances (excluding his and his concert parties' shares) and a majority in number of shareholders (so lots of little shareholders can scupper the deal if they don't accept). The share register would need to be analysed to see the chances of success, as well as the price shareholders bought their shares and the likelihood of them selling at a particular price. The big question mark will be who the Takeover Panel will deem to be his concert parties/cronies as they will not be counted towards the 75% threshold.

I'm not posting negative comments. Just factual ones. You are spamming the board with factually incorrect information and have lost any credibility you had. I understand your desire to see more positivity in the posts, but you need to post factually correct information or you will be called out on it. I have suffered a massive paper loss on THG and would love nothing more than the share price to rocket, but posting lies/incorrect information will not help to achieve that. I am happty to put your posts down to someone who thinks they are right and wants to be positive, but they are not helpful as you are just misleading people.

Some shareholders who have margin loans will be forced to sell as the massively reduced THG share price will potentially be giving them problems with their collateral to the banks. I myself received a margin call yesterday as the THG LV (ie the percentage deemed to be good collateral) reduced from 45% to 35% 3 months ago and to 25% yesterday as the adjusted free float (ie liquidity) has reduced so much. Fortunately, I can provide additional collateral and don't need to sell my THG shares, but others may not be quite so lucky. This is what those buying the shares/the shorters are trying to achieve - force shareholders to sell as they have no choice.

6,365 posts?!?! Who on Earth has the time or inclination to post so much on this board? Are all of your posts as factually incorrect as this one? Whilst I can see that Steve is irritating, he does talk a lot of sense. Pearls on the other hand....and you can see from the number of "Recommends" on Pearl's recent posts on FTSE250 inclusion that some people on here believe him/her. Read the rules people!

I think if they do try to screw us again a la Ingenuity a number of us from here should get together anonymously or with masks off and write a detailed critique and post it to the board, online and to the financial press. I will not go down without a fight! I went in on Ingenuity not because I wanted to but because I couldn't bare MM taking value away from me...

Someone is buying lots of shares but off market/after hours with no positive impact on the share price. That someone is going to make a lot of money when the share price corrects as I'm sure it will. Just not sure when that will be... And, I agree, that someone/several people have a vested interest in seeing the share price plummet in preparation for stakebuilding or an offer. The key hurdle though is all of those statements about how £1.70 significantly undervalues the company etc. If that's the case then surely a board could not approve a 70p offer?

Pearls, I too have read the rules and, unlike you, I can actually read and understand complex sentences. Your understanding of the rules is incredibly basic. There is no misdirection going on on my part. Just facts. You either can’t read or are indeed engaged in misdirection yourself. I want the share price to go up to recover the massive loss I have on paper, but there’s no point any of us making things up to suit our own agenda.

“No mention whatsoever of just four leaving and four joining.......” that’s the effect if you read the rules and apply them to the current market caps. Anyway, let’s see tomorrow. I want to be in but I think it it’s v unlikely absent a 6% increase in the share price tomorrow