SoftBank has sold its entire stake in British ecommerce company THG, formerly known as The Hut Group, for about £31m.
The Japanese multinational conglomerate will sell its 80,621,797 shares to THG founder and CEO Matthew Moulding and exiting investor Qatar Holding. The sale will represent losses of around £450m for SoftBank, which has been restructuring its investments after posting a record loss in August.
“I’m delighted to be further increasing my family’s stake in THG, continuing our unswerving support following on from other recent share purchases,” said Matthew Moulding, CEO and co-founder, THG.
Shares in THG rose by nearly 13% following the sale. Founded in 2004, THG owns brands such as Myprotein, Cult Beauty and Lookfantastic.
It follows THG’s share price falling to a record low last month after reducing its sale forecast for the remainder of 2022.
Low share prices for the Manchester-based company are nothing new, with investors reacting negatively to the now-abandoned deal for SoftBank to acquire a fifth of THG’s Ingenuity technology division for $1.6bn.
Moulding added: “We at THG extend our thanks to SoftBank for their support as a financial and commercial partner, and we will continue to benefit from the relationships formed across their international technology portfolio.”
“I’m incredibly proud of the progress the team continue to make in each of our major divisions, and believe the uncertain macro-conditions provide an even greater opportunity for THG to further disrupt global Beauty, Nutrition and Technology markets,” said Moulding.
The ecommerce company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in September 2020 at a valuation of £5.4bn.
SoftBank is also looking to offload Cambridge chip company Arm through a public listing, either in the UK, US or both.
The post SoftBank offloads THG stake in £450m write-off appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
