THG brands

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THG has raised £95.4m from shareholders to help fund its planned demerger of the Ingenuity DTC platform.

CEO Matthew Moulding led the placing, putting in £10m to the pot, with other long-term and institutional shareholders contributing another £40m.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which partnered with THG on Ingenuity back in June, also kicked in a £10m strategic investment.

Another £5.4m was raised from retail investors, with the overall placing priced at 49p a share, which represented a slight discount to last night’s closing price.

THG said the fundraising enabled it to continnue with its plans to spin-off the Ingenuity division, which it has valued at £100m.

It announced the plans last month, with the beauty and nutrition divisions set to continue trading on the London Stock Exchange.

The group hopes the move will simplify the business, strengthen its balance sheet and inject new life into a stock price that has collapsed since floating at a blockbuster price back in 2020.

“The company is pleased by the strong support it has received from both existing shareholders and new investors,” THG said this morning.

The group added that the new funds were expected to provide Ingenuity with sufficient medium-term funding as the business approached positive cash generation on a standalone basis.

Shares in THG sank another 6.2% this morning to 48.5p following the placing.

Morning update

THG also published third-quarter results last night after the markets closed, which is just three weeks after reporting a profits warning in its interims.

The group said revenues in the three months to 30 September were down 5.2% to £442.8m.

It added the full-year performance would be in line with expectations.

The beauty division increased sales 2.3% to £254.7m, but nutrition fell 13.1% to £134.5m. Ingenuity grew revenues by 15% to £44m.

THG said the nutrition arm saw improving trends during the quarter, with sales recovering from July.

Moulding added: “It was especially pleasing to see another solid quarter of delivery from both our Beauty and Ingenuity businesses, rewarding the significant overhaul of their respective operating models during 2022 and 2023. The short-term disruption from the major rebrand of Myprotein is now behind us, and we were pleased that in September Nutrition delivered its best sales performance since January.”

He said: “Preparations for our busiest trading period are well advanced with efficiencies across the network over the last twelve months delivering further benefits for our Ingenuity clients to aid new customer acquisition.”

Cooks Coffee Company has appointed Katherine Scott as its new chief financial officer, joining the group with 15 years of experience across multiple industries, including time with AHC Ltd, Immediate Media Company and Chestertons Global.

Executive chairman Keith Jackson said: “We are excited to welcome Katherine Scott to the board having returned to the UK after time in Australia.”