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To me it's either MM takes private or it stays listed with separation soon etc. The trouble with the "big PE" making an offer idea is unless they were planning to buy and work with Moulding which I think is unlikely then they would be buying from Moulding and would have to pay an absolutely huge premium from here for him to sell.

Pencil it seemed though like king street also had a number of short positions which means they might in a sense be "even" despite the losses on their stock buys? I believe there was an article somewhere reporting along those lines.

Why did Macdonald do the bid in the first place? He must have known £1.70 would never be accepted and that he'd have to offer a huge amount more if MM was ever going to sell.
I mean it might make sense if he was buying with MM and co but then why now pull out? Times previously reported that he was "dumbfounded" by the fall in THG sp so I very much doubt he has decided it's not worth more.

Wigan was never a holder, been spreading fud for months and months about "skeletons in THG's closet", now reappears after sp has fallen back.

Anyone notice this possible bid page before?

Rock you could say the same about nearly all CEOs and chairmans of listed companies, "they are already rich so don't really care".

I had got back in the habit of checking my portfolio when this was around £1.50...may have to take a hiatus again from that for a short bit.
Some announcement has to be soon though...the bid story has slightly distracted from the longer wait which was the question around separation which has been hanging in the air for around 9 months without much clarity.
Steven Whitehead said at results on 21st April that separation "completes in Q2". Only 16 days (12 business days) until the last day of June.

Matt Rothwell also said this - "Obviously, the separation gives us huge strategic optionality, and that will be a big win for us in the year ahead as a group."

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4502838-thg-plc-thghy-ceo-matthew-moulding-on-q4-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript

B1nky unless they convince 75% to move to private then how would they push through a price of £2? As I posted yesterday the times piece said "One of the largest holders" was pointing out that £1.70 only values THG at 1x sales whereas other recent acquisitions in the beauty/nutrition space were valued at 5x.

If he's selling at £2 then it wouldn't be about "anyone in here" it would be about himself as he is the biggest shareholder and would be locking in a huge loss of his wealth and potential wealth.
If you mean buying out at £2 that is different but I very much doubt he would have enough holders wanting to go private to pull that off.

Anyone else think part of the reason people are sceptical about bids coming is because THG is too undervalued for it to happen?
I don't believe PE believe MM would sell so there's almost no point putting in a bid? That's not to say they believe the share price is necc going to go up in the short term because the share price is not the company and sometimes share prices become cursed, but they know THG the business is very undervalued therefore MM won't sell.
Maybe if this was £6 at the moment they might think they could offer say £8 to have chance of buying from MM? However as things stand the way only way to get it cheap is to buy WITH Matt rather than buy FROM Matt.
Buying with MM they could get a lot cheaper, though still would have to offer a big premium on current I would imagine due to enough stubborn holders who do no want to go into a private vehicle and are happy to wait as a listed company.
There are some posters who seem to think buying FROM Matt at say £3 is actually a possible thing. There is just no way. A buyout WITH Matt is possible though.

Just to remind they rejected PE bids of £3.9 billion in 2018 when the company was making £736 million revenue a year and had £186 million in cash.
They now make £2.2 billion revenue a year and have £530 million in cash.

Also, remember this paragraph from the times a few weeks back? Didn't really sound like a "rolling to private" holder -

"One of THG’s biggest shareholders told The Times that he was “sitting tight” in the expectation of more bids and said that a 170p-a-share approach only valued the business at one times its sales. Recent private transactions for similar nutrition and health businesses, such as Nestlé’s acquisition of Orgain, were going for five times. “Our view is that THG is significantly undervalued,” the investor added. He noted that while THG’s shares had fallen dramatically since its listing in September 2020 other ecommerce stocks including Boohoo, Asos and Ocado had lost two-thirds of their value and he believed that THG had bigger future growth prospects."

Times headline is ridiculous how does 9% of investors voting against a director (and 91% voting for) equate to that headline of closing the door?

Rock you are overthinking the sell off...whilst the drop happened more quickly it was still less down on the day than ASOS.

I looked up the definition of Flim Flam lol.
First definition - a trick or deception, especially a swindle or confidence game involving skillful persuasion or clever manipulation of the victim.
Second - Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true.

We know it's easy to play with due to the low float, perhaps they feel a but more comfortable making bigger moves today as there is an "excuse" from the AGM the same way capital markets day was an excuse where they could pretend the drop was justified.
Obviously the inflation in US being higher than expected weighs on things too more broadly.

https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/top-team-leading-matthew-mouldings-24194648

Oklehurst well I'd hope it can't be long, they surely have to tell us if the separation Stephen Whitehead said "completes in quarter 2" is actually happening before June is over.

Do you remember much of their reply to the negative media question?

I agree Marlin, Matt M has been extremely vague in his answers on strategy, probably because the decision wasn't fully made yet. Steven was direct though in saying separation completes in q2. Here are some quotes from the transcript when you type in separation:

John Gallemore
"We have been evolving fast for over a decade, and the last year was no different. We announced the separation of our businesses. And consequently, there will be changes in the way we present the business moving forward."

"The group has also incurred professional fees associated with the acquisitions completed in the year and restructuring costs out of the separation of our key trading divisions. Ahead of our planned separation, we have considered how the change in shape of the group is reflected in our cash-generating units"

Matt Rothwell
"You've got the separation costs. Obviously, the separation gives us huge strategic optionality, and that will be a big win for us in the year ahead as a group".

Steven Whitehead
"And Andrew, briefly pick up on SoftBank. The SoftBank option kicks in once separation is completed. It completes in Q2, but there's nothing to update on that at this point. It would be something for later in the year and no other updates outside of AutoStore."

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4502838-thg-plc-thghy-ceo-matthew-moulding-on-q4-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript

HoodedClaw it becomes a bit more strange to still be vague about the separation date etc when there are only 20 days left for it to happen in H1.

There will be less than 3 weeks of June left from AGM tomorrow. They re-iterated separation would complete in H1 around 7 weeks back and by all accounts were ahead of schedule. Are they planning to not answer any strategic questions tomorrow? Coz surely there will be a lot of these questions on this.