The Hut Group has handed over a dossier of data to the City watchdog chief executive Matt Moulding hopes will prove stockbrokers colluded to drive down its share price.
In the last few weeks, THG has passed on what it believes to be irregular stock market activity and short-selling data to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Chief executive Moulding is understood to be particularly suspicious of trading activity after THG’s investor day in October, according to reporting in The Sunday Times.
After its investor day on October 12, there was a raft of sell orders that wiped over £2bn off THG’s valuation.
The tech retailer has had a tough year since it first floated on the London Stock Exchange for £5.4bn, which in turn triggered an £830m share-based bonus for boss and co-founder Matt Moulding.
THG’s share price has since slumped three quarters since the float, amid investor doubts over the real value of its Ingenuity tech business and a lack of proper corporate governance.
The FCA investigates
A source close to THG claimed it had evidence the slump after its investor day was the result of co-ordinated sell orders which triggered algorithms pushing the retailer’s shares into terminal decline.
THG’s dossier will also form part of the FCA’s inquiries into the action of one sales person at bank Numis, who sent a note to investors in November falsely alleging “accounting irregularities” at the retailer.
More evidence in the dossier to the FCA relates to a note published by The Analyst in October, a group who recommended its investors to short THG shares. The Analyst had said its concerns over THG stemmed from the fact that 13 of the retailer’s Ingenuity deals had gone live, with THG denies.
THG says only a handful of those deals hadn’t gone live at the time as clients weren’t ready, claiming The Analyst had deliberately spread “misinformation”.
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