BlackRock, the largest institutional investor in THG, has sold almost half of its stake in the ecommerce group after a sharp fall in the share price in recent months.
The world’s largest asset manager sold 58m shares in THG, at a price of 195p per share, according to bookrunner Goldman Sachs. The £113m deal marked a 10.3 per cent discount to the stock’s closing price on Monday.
As of October 13, BlackRock owned a 9.55 per cent stake in THG across multiple active and passive funds, according to Capital IQ data, and was the largest investor after THG’s founder and chief executive Matthew Moulding, who owns about 15 per cent of the company.
THG, formerly known as The Hut Group, floated at 500p a share in September 2020, which was followed by a post-IPO rally that took the stock to almost 800p. The shares, however, have come under sustained pressure in recent months, reflecting investor concerns about governance, strategy and valuation.
BlackRock’s active funds bought into THG before its IPO. One person close to the asset manager said trimming its stake reflected “prudent risk management as the stock has fallen”.
The person added: “We still support management and remain invested in the company. We believe in the stock’s fundamentals and there have been improvements on the governance side.”
THG has three main business units: Beauty and Nutrition, both of which are ecommerce operations selling brands such as Espa and Myprotein direct to consumers, and Ingenuity, a suite of ecommerce technology products and services.
Ingenuity has drawn scrutiny since May, when THG said it had granted funds linked to Japanese investment group SoftBank an option to buy a 20 per cent stake in the business at a price that implied an enterprise value of £4.5bn for the whole unit.
Analysts and investors have struggled to reconcile the Ingenuity valuation. It is £2bn higher than the current market cap of the whole of THG and the group has never disclosed a profit for Ingenuity. The division has reported contract wins but revenues are growing from a small base.
THG has sought to improve its governance and transparency. Andreas Hansson, a managing director at SoftBank, is joining its board, and it is recruiting a non-executive chair. The company, meanwhile, has brought forward the end date of a “special share” arrangement that allows Moulding to veto a hostile takeover.
THG shares fell 6 per cent to 205p on Tuesday morning.
BlackRock declined to comment. THG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2IyNzI4YzRkLTFmNjMtNGFlOS1iMGNhLWQ2M2JiM2M1MjZlNtIBAA?oc=5
2021-11-02 09:16:35Z
CAIiELZfHAWD8Ndtft-DEjtN1JIqFwgEKg8IACoHCAow-4fWBzD4z0gw0tp6
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar