By Emily Hawkins
Jupiter Fund Management has halved its stake in the e-commerce retailer THG.
In an announcement published on the London Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon, the fund said it had reduced its holding from 8.94 per cent to 4.97 per cent.
The fund manages shares in THG for BNP Paribas, Northern Trust and Citigroup.
The Manchester-based retailer, which owns brands including Cult Beauty, ESPA and Illamasqua, has seen its share price sink some 89 per cent in the past year.
Jupiter’s announcement comes after the troubled online retailer cancelled a partnership with a division of SoftBank last week, citing “global macroeconomic conditions.”
A call option with the Japanese conglomerate to pump an extra $1.6bn into technology unit THG Ingenuity has been scrapped and will “cease to be capable” of being exercised.
An option and collaboration agreement was terminated by mutual agreement with immediate effect.
The plan would have seen SoftBank take a stake worth almost 20 per cent in the division, around $730m, after its SB Management division announced the option in May 2021.
THG Ingenuity was valued at $6.3bn last spring.
The Cult Beauty owner said it had completed an international separation of key divisions, which would provide”flexibility to enter into future strategic partnerships to generate value accretion for its stakeholders”.
Earlier this summer, THG rejected all recent approaches for the e-commerce beauty firm, stating the proposals had “significantly undervalued” the firm.
Matthew Moulding’s retail emporium had received indicative proposals from “numerous parties” in recent months, it had confirmed in its full year results earlier this year.
It also rejected an indicative non-binding proposal from a consortium led by Belerion Capital Group Limited and King Street Capital Management.
Property tycoon Nick Candy’s Candy Ventures also announced it had pulled out of the running for a THG takeover.
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