THG rebuffs bid approaches, share price dives

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 16, 2022

Tech-to-beauty online giant THG said on Thursday that it has rebuffed recent takeover approaches as they undervalue the business.

In a stock exchange statement, the company said: “THG has received indicative proposals from numerous parties in recent months. Furthermore, as announced on 19 May 2022, an indicative non-binding proposal from a consortium led by Belerion Capital Group Limited and King Street Capital Management LP, had been rejected by the Board of THG.

“All recent approaches for THG have been unsolicited, and in the unanimous opinion of the board, were unacceptable and significantly undervalued the company. After consulting with THG's major shareholders and taking advice from the company's advisors, the board has not considered it appropriate to provide due diligence access to any of these parties.”

It added that while it’s “clearly aware of the macro-economic challenges, the company continues to perform well, and in line with its own expectations.”

The company's shares fell more than 20% on Thursday as a result with the share price having been mainly boosted in recent weeks by the thought that it might accept a takeover bid.

Takeover approaches had been precipitated by the precarious state of the share price. When the company first listed on the stock exchange less than 18 months ago, its shares were changing hands for almost £8 each. By March this year, however, they'd fallen to not much more than 82p each, although buyout speculation saw them almost doubling by late last month. But on Thursday morning they were back down to around 82p.