The Hut Group, once the darling of the City, has fallen victim to short-sellers as well as to nervous shareholders selling off their stakes. A lack of confidence in THG’s future plans, as well as the ability of all retailers to weather the current freight and logistics storms, appears to be at the heart of the problem. Much of THG’s current situation was exacerbated by a ‘capital markets briefing’ which was intended to reassure the market about earlier announcements but sharply backfired. THG had said some weeks earlier that it would be looking to spin off its Ingenuity technology platform which supports a significant roster of third party businesses trading online. It had also then mooted that the business might also then look to separate out its beauty arm. Having achieved a valuation of £9.8bn in January, THG’s value swiftly fell to £3.5bn, with shares now languishing well below its float price.
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