Member Info for Yesimabeliever

I don’t agree with you cpi, but that was funny

Well done to the canary I say

“Saw the light too. realised mould is nothing but self interested, self deluded control freak, who like the emperor nero, is happy to see all burn around him, rather than allow an alter rex”

That is one way of looking at it. On the other hand, it is clear to me that MM still holds the loyalty and confdence of a lot of long term investors who know the man and are still publically backing him in both actions and words.

Angus Munro (supporting him with Kelso), Tom Hunter to name two. They don’t think he is “burning them”.

I doubt I’d like to go for a pint with Ste. He’d tell you the pint you were drinking was full of poison, the pub was about to burn down, and that Vlad was about to nuke the whole country. He’d be ok though as he was off to his nuclear bunker and had was short everything

as per my note earlier, the silence to me suggests that we are closer to an announcement than some might think: if you are negotiating with a strategic partner on a deal, or even better having multiple conversations , you wouldn’t tell everyone what you are doing as it weakens your hand. as in all negotiations you need to be able to walk away to get the best deal. also you potential strategic partner would be ****ed off if you are blabbing it to the market pre deal. look at marlow/ inflexion, silence, then rns

404. Don’t think THG have any interest in premium listing anymore - to quote MM on Jan call, they don’t think the LSE is the right place to grow any of their 3 divisions. You don’t get clearer than that.

OSG, good points - is what Kelso is asking for any different to the plan the Board is already executing? I’m

not sure it is. Board undertook separation pre Kelso investment to give them strategic optionality. Kelso want the plan announced in the short term to drive the share price up quick and make a quick buck. MM wants to explore all his options and negotiate out of the public domain (like Marlowe did with inflexion), and do the right deal, whether that be strategic partner/IPO/PE. MM. Announce plan in advance and he weakens his negotiating hand if he is exploring multiple options still. All just an opinion of course

Cheers sbd, just trying to bring some positivity to the board. Easier as newer investor without the baggage. I’ve tracked THG for years, avoided investing at IPO because the valuation was too rich and didn’t believe the growth would sustain at the same rate post COVID. MM is smart guy, but not the first entrepreneur to believe his on hype at IPO and over promise. Seen it all before with John Roberts at AO. Doesn’t mean there aren’t some good assets in here chronically undervalued. The City punish you for missing numbers, he has been badly advised (snouts in the rough of course) and I am surprised Iain McDonald didn’t rein him in a bit. Probably again guilty of believing their own hype. MM has cut enough great deals in the past to make me think he can do it again, with Charles Allen in the background giving some solid support. Fingers xx

I’m not blindly believing anything, at present big holders appear to all be backing MM and the Board as far as I can see. That means there is a plan in play to realise the value of the assets. If you don’t believe that you are better off selling up.

I am not as cynical of MM motives as some on this board. I believe MM didn’t reject Apollo because he wanted to maintain control (he put out in his statement he would have stayed as CEO), he (and the Board & the majority shareholders) rejected it because they think they can get a better deal for shareholders. The market says not as per the SP, but as we know the market is not always right as demonstrated by the Marlowe deal this morning

OSG, I’m as keen as anyone to see something happen here, and believe it will. I get it that everyone is getting impatient, but these deals take time. I haven’t looked but suspect Marlowe weren’t telling the market about the inflexion deal prior to the RNS, as people want to negotiate with no noise. MM is most likely in discussions , but THG is a bigger, much more international and complex beast, which they were restructuring last year to focus on margin vs growth because that is what the market now wants. Plus last year wasn’t the greatest macro environment to get maximum value for consumer assets. This year is the year.

I believe Marlowe is a fairly straight forward carve out of a division made up of recent acquisitions that sell outsourced HR/legal/compliance services to SME’s. It is a hot space for Private equity with lots of recurring revenue, KKR own Citation in the same space and was probably a straight forward deal for Inflexion. MM is dealing with a bigger, more complex international business, and investors will be US. Give the man a chance…

Just checking I’m not missing anything here, we are only up 3p? Wake me when an RNS drops

Peer group all weak today as well. There is a rumour somewhere

It may not suit the narrative of the trolls, but I’d argue that MM is an impressive guy

If you are looking to get a deal done on best terms for rolling and exiting shareholders , you aren’t going to do it until margins recover post inflationary shock. Or would you prefer he sold your shares on the cheap Ste2000 (if you actually own any)

Agreed Ste2000 that would be cleanest. The challenge is deal structure as MM has made clear it would need to be a minority deal, allowing major shareholders to roll, not too much leverage. Apollo would have written the cheque, but as per MM statement they wanted priority rights over beauty and nutrition. No rolling shareholder is going to go for that.

I think the narrative that MM doesn’t care about outcomes for investors is wide of the mark. Nobody is more frustrated about the current situation/SP than him. LSE IPO was a mistake, not easy to unpick in the climate of the last 2 years, and the moves he makes next have to be about driving long term shareholder value for THG. I’m sure he’ll unlock value for all shareholders, I’d back the guy that has built a £2b+ turnover business from scratch over a corporate jockey any day

In response yespsb, I believe public to private will accelerate through the year as rates come off and debt gets cheaper, bringing leveraged buy outs back in play, really cranking up in the second half of '24. As you point out private equity is sat on bucket loads of cash, and they will pick off the prime assets and take them private. Curry's interests me because it is a UK only company, no opportunity to scale internationally. Elliott must just think it is dirt cheap, and with a bit of financial engineering be able to make their returns even without stella growth opportunities. A no brainer.

I see great opportunities in UK small caps at the moment, unloved and undervalued, multiples at historic lows. Value investors picking the right shares will clean up over the next few years.

Not so sure on that yespsb, had lunch with a fund manager last week who was telling me how bad a place the LSE is in. Lots of boring old world economy shares (oil & gas, mining etc), not enough new world growth shares, and investors/companies have lost interest in little Britain post brexit. There are countless undervalued shares on the LSE and people are expecting plenty of public to private action this year.