Remember most of the un-disclosed short positions were taken out prior to some of the drops over the last 3 months, plus at the top of the recent rally over Christmas where the price went up to £2.32, where the market would expect a pull back after such a quick rise in the share price. That pull back has now happened I believe.
We know Cube has reduced their short positions three times in the last 4 weeks.
https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareShortPositions.asp?shareprice=THG&share=Thg-Plc
What amazes me is how few retail investors it seems actually do their own research and just believe the media.
How many actually looked at the great Q3 results and watched the webinars which I thought were great, available freely on the THG website.
How many read the positive stories such as Matalan now using THG Ingenuity. How Homebase and Hotel Chocolat are doing really well off the back of THG Ingenuity. How the Disney shop is using THG Ingenuity etc. How many searched LinkedIn posts themselves to see how positive staff are about the business and their personal Q4 results. How China Singles Day smashed targets in the first hour of trade. How Australia is smashing targets etc.
Then they may realise how undervalued THG is currently and how Matt Moulding is right about the stock being played to maximise profits for a few wealthy institutions.
I think we will gap up on the results next week.
GLA
I think I'd be pretty emotionally invested about the shorting if the company I built over 14 years was being targeted by modern day bank robbers.
Also if I had his body I'd be well pleased, but I don't think I could do the work for it. It takes dedication and commitment. Another thing to note about his character
@Hosai,
Agree, I think THG are probably one of the most open businesses I've come across. I see Matt and John as proud northerners and from everything I've seen of them in interviews they don't like cheats, they like to reward their staff, and they want to drive the business with a mentality of if you can't get what you want from the system, do it yourself cheaper.
They remind me of the north's version of Elon Musk. Like when Musk had supply issues of USB cables for Tesla's last month, he sent someone out to a load of shops to buy up all the cables they could. When he couldn't buy rockets at a fair price from Russia, he built them himself. THG have done this building Ingenuity, they bring manufacturing internal, they are bringing plastics manufacture internally integrated, they bought planes to manage logistics themselves cheaper. I like them
For me it's got so worrying I've now brought my wife in on discussing where were at with THG and looking at the risk/reward potential considering I'm sat on a load at £2.20.
She knows nothing but says even if it drops, stay with it and in 3 months it will be fine. Just clean up the kitchen.
Hopefully good advice...
Yes, I agree that a lot of the cost increases are baked in. MM did say they would try pass some of the pricing onto customers within legal limits of changing pricing in the Q3 web update (which I watched again the other night for comfort). This is where he also said about the autostore investment helping on their costs to offset.
Yeah, I noticed on MyProtein message boards someone mentioned the retail pricing had gone up but was still ok compared to other brands. MM commented previously there were increases in pricing generally which is hitting most markets but improvements with warehousing efficiency and reduced labour costs overall due to AutoStore would offset cost increases to an extent
I'm getting the feeling there is another off-the-books volume going through today like happened on Friday when there was a 6.5m trade entered about 16:10 which had actually gone through earlier in the day.
Matt Moulding commented about the property deals previously and they were all done pre-IPO, with investors informed pre-IPO, and with the information made public (hence why the Guardian can write a FUD piece about it so easily).
They were all to save THG on tax after advise from specialists, and MM advised he would give the profits to charity.
For me, this continues to show forward thinking of THG management. Like how they are buying a plastics recycling plant to have full control of their plastics in their packaging going forward and to improve their eco footprint, or buying planes to reduce their airfreight costs...
Its behind a paywall so:
"By Laura Onita 9 January 2022 • 9:13pm
THG has handed over data to the financial regulator seeking to show it was at the centre of a coordinated attack from hedge funds and stockbrokers that led to a recent slump in its share price.
The documents contain what the e-commerce firm believes to be irregular stock market trading and short-selling data, particularly after a disastrous capital markets day in October that wiped off £2bn of its stock market value.
At the time THG held a meeting with investors to offer more clarity about its white-label technology division, Ingenuity, amid City concerns about its profitability and business model as well as wider good corporate governance at the group. However, the meeting backfired and the shares slumped by a third.
A source close to THG claimed the fall was due to co-ordinated sell orders designed to trigger automated trading algorithms that sent the shares tumbling, the Sunday Times reported.
THG’s submission comes in response to a request from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), sources said, after Numis, which worked on THG’s £5.4bn listing, reported itself to the financial regulator in November.
Numis swiftly apologised and retracted a bearish note, written by a junior member of staff, suggesting that there were “irregularities in accounting” at THG. Numis has not had any dialogue with the FCA since, sources said.
In an interview with GQ magazine last November, chief executive Matthew Moulding said THG had suffered a “pretty aggressive short attack” orchestrated by the “media, investment banks, fund managers, hedge funds, etc”. The co-founder was at one point in line for a share-based bonus of £830m.
THG, previously known as The Hut Group, is also understood to have included information about research outfit The Analyst, which published a sceptical research note in October and recommended shorting THG shares.
The Analyst, which did not reply to a request for comment, reportedly approached THG for comment multiple times prior to publication of its content. In December the firm pulled its short recommendation.
According to data provider IHS Markit, 4.1pc of THG’s shares are on loan, so-called short positions that allow investors to profit from a drop in the share price.
The shares closed at 194p on Friday compared with highs of almost 800p this time last year.
THG, the FCA and Numis all declined to comment."