Proactive Investors - THG PLC (LON:THG), formerly the Hut Group, confirmed it still plans to move its listing to the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange as it reported slower growth for the past year and declines in the first quarter, a day after saying it received a private equity bid.
Founder and chief executive Matthew Moulding will give up his ‘golden share’ rights, which gives him the power to veto hostile takeover approaches, in September, the company said, which will allow it to move off its standard listing and join the ranks of the FTSE 250.
But it added the caveat that the timing of the move would be subject to the outcome of the Financial Conduct Authority's review for reform of the listing regime, where the City regulator has said it is planning to replace the standard and premium listings with a single, streamlined set of requirements.
For the year to 31 March, the company reported 2.7% revenue growth to £2.24bn, while over two years it noted this was up 38.8%.
An operating loss of £495.6mln over three times the £137.5mln from the year before, while underlying earnings (EBIDTA) fell 54% to £74.3mln.
Under pressure to please two activist investors and shareholders who have seen the shares tumble over 80% from their listing price in 2020, Moulding said EBITDA was “not where we planned at the start of the year”, which he blamed largely on “our strategy to minimise the impact of inflation upon our customer base”.
He said around £100mln of efficiency savings were delivered and there is now a “much-improved outlook on many key cost inputs” that gives us confidence in an improved financial performance in 2023 as the year progresses, while it is near completing its three-year infrastructure investment programme that is increasing confidence growing market share and accelerating profitability and free cash flow generation.
Revenue from continuing businesses declined 5.6% in the first quarter of 2023, which the company said “was largely as planned, as a result of prioritising higher margin sales”.
The shares fell 16% in early trading on Tuesday, having jumped the day before on confirmation of a "highly preliminary and non-binding indicative" approach from Apollo.