The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
I don't think the price will matter to MM, £1.70, £3 or £1.20, Matt and his senior team will be rolling into the newco anyway. The number has to be big enough to get a 75% majority and there are LOTS of big boys who's votes will be needed who wont be rolling in and wont accept £1.50 or £1.70 or anything close.
Been involved since before the previous offer and bought more as we went down and down. 30’s and 40’s were tough!!! Stay strong everyone, we will have our day and hopefully sooner rather then later.
I’ve responded - please like, share, respond accordingly where you can on LinkedIn.
———
Well said Matt. The company needs a new home. Somewhere that appreciates the work you and your team do. But has to be done at a fair and honourable price. Many of us friends, colleagues, employees, charities etc have invested heavily in you and your management team over the years and as you said 12 months ago “£1.70 significantly undervalues the company, no deal!” We are all counting on you.
In the words of Alanis Morissette "Isn't it ironic".
It's sadly become standard practice for a select few within the world of hedge funds, media and bank analysts to regularly build negative coverage against UK listed companies, including THG.
The purpose of "the game" is simple: bet that a share price will fall, and make sure you win the bet by doing everything possible to discredit the company.
The more aggressive the claims & actions against a company, the bigger the share price impact. Strange work, I know, but it pays big. And if you repeat it time and again, against a plethora of UK listed companies, then the rewards are mind boggling. I put this video together for my 2022 staff Christmas presentation, drawing on Wolf of Wall Street.
This repetitive pattern across the LSE explains why there are minimal pension or institutional funds investing in the LSE. According to the Tulchan Stewardship Report, 30 yrs ago pension funds held 55-60% of UK equities. Today it's 2%. That's almost a 97% reduction!
In simple terms, the UK market has suffered from years of "over-fishing", where small groups of industry professionals come together to try and damage UK businesses, and their share prices. Nobody tells you about this when joining the LSE, but it finds you soon enough. The number of CEOs of other listed companies that have reached out to me since THG joined the LSE is remarkable. Each wanting to share their war stories.
The increasing flurry of companies leaving London, with Boards speaking out about the state of the market, is now bringing attention to the problem. You know things must be serious when some Boards are even daring to publicly speak out about it while still listed on the LSE, something that would have stirred an angry response as recent as last year.
Many in the City are blaming pension funds for the state of UK the market, calling on the Government to start forcing pension funds to pump hundreds of billions into UK listed shares, instead of overseas investments.
This is wild. Pension funds are run for the benefit of those who have made sacrifices throughout their lives, saving for their retirement. Pension trustees have a legal responsibility to deliver the best returns for pension holders - it's their money after all. If they believed the LSE to be the best place to invest, then they would be doing it now, like they did 30 yrs ago.
Forcing the UK public to bail out the UK market can’t be a credible solution, and won’t end well. Pensions will deliver much worse returns, negatively impacting the lives of the average Briton. Surely we need to address the overfishing problem first?
The past 48 hours have been ironic. A recent negative press against THG & me has had dramatically the opposite effect than intended. A throw-away line in an otherwise typically wildly inaccurate press piece, resulted in a share price spike and an obligation to make an announcement, culminating in a c.45% increase in the share pri
I’ve also got a few good friends in the city and they have exactly the same view. One is a senior equities trader and was burned heavily in the early days, buying in at 550 and selling out at 400. He took a big loss and although now hates the company (because of this) massively bought into the story and most importantly the tech side of the busienss (which is currently valued at zero) interesting, I didn’t buy in because of the tech offering. I bought in initially as I believe either beauty or nutrition alone are worth multiples of the current total market cap. (Let alone together) The tech side is a massive bonus on top… I take comfort in hearing that some of these guys bought in because of the tech side, not even thinking about the 2 largest and most profitable parts of the business. Interestingly all of my trader friends believe there are circa 8 plus game changing pieces of news that could drop and send this shooting up! They all think MM being replaced doubles the share in a day, easily. None of them want any part of THG though, I guess once bitten, twice shy!
It's true. I have a lot of women in my life. But not in the way a couple of topless pool party pictures might suggest...
Today is #InternationalWomensDay. The majority of people at THG are women, so it's a good excuse to celebrate a big achiever.
This is a pic of me and Lucy Gorman yesterday. Lucy is CEO of THG Beauty, a division with well over £1bn of Sales. Quite a statement given she is only 30-years old.
Lucy first joined THG 12 years ago as a placement student from University of Leeds.
After finishing her degree, Lucy joined THG in a junior role. She quickly moved through the ranks, working with me on the acquisition of GLOSSYBOX in 2017.
I was impressed and made Lucy Managing Director of GLOSSYBOX. This was a big ask for a 24-year-old not long out of university. Glossy has offices in London, Berlin, and Sweden and was generating sales of c£30m. This is a special learning curve few get to experience.
Through 2017, I became frustrated with our Myprotein brand. Within 6 years of acquisition, THG Ingenuity had driven a 15-fold increase in Myprotein Sales to c£300m. But the brand wasn't keeping pace with a rapidly changing market, and growth was fading. We needed to appeal to a wider audience, especially women. And so, the team was changed at the start of 2018. Enter Lucy.
Lucy was made CEO of Myprotein shortly after her 26th birthday. Her industry knowledge was zero. We didn't need industry knowledge, just a change of mindset. A small team of trusted people sat with the newly assembled team in the Myprotein office. This was my way of telling everyone we were going to make this work, like it or not.
Most people say they want these big roles, but few can handle the reality. Myprotein was overdue a complete rebrand. We needed to launch sister brands in Myvegan and Myvitamins and MP Activewear. These would give us credibility in new categories, attracting a broader gender and age demographic.
Maybe Lucy was too young or naïve to question the plan before taking the role. Or maybe she just backed herself 100%.
Sure, it was tough, with plenty of stress, tears, and doubts from everyone. But the rest is history. Lucy, and the team we built, came good. Very good.
Last September it was time for Lucy to get a new challenge. I asked her to become CEO of THG Beauty, our largest division at almost twice the size of Myprotein. She took over the baton from Rachel Horsefield, another impressive female leader. Rachel’s own THG story is worthy of a book.
Apparently, there are fewer than 7,000 companies in the world with Sales of more than £1bn. At 30-years of age, Lucy is now CEO of one of them.
Meritocracy is at the heart of THG. We grow talent, promoting best performers, irrespective of gender, age, race or religion.
It's a good day at work making promotions. Tough days often follow while changes take effect. But the very best days are seeing those difficult decisions bear fruit for years to come.
#IW
I think you’re right pmh, he’s gone from posting, literally nothing for 12 months to posting almost every day hugely positive reminiscing stories about the company and it’s not just him, it’s him and all his major investors. Something is afoot.