THG’s largest institutional investor BlackRock has sold almost half of its shares as the online retailer faces ongoing concerns around its corporate governance and business model.
US firm BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset management firms, previously held a 10.1% stake in the ecommerce business, according to Refinitiv data. It was the company’s second-largest shareholder after chief executive and co-founder Matthew Moulding.
BlackRock indicated on Tuesday that it would sell 58 million of its almost 124 million shares at a discounted price of 195p per share, 10.3% lower than Monday’s closing price.
BlackRock’s intention to sell saw THG’s share price fall to a record low of 198p in early trading, far below the 500p the company floated at last year.
The move marks a further instalment in a difficult month for the company as share prices fell more than 240% in October.
THG has struggled to regain investor confidence following concerns around the company’s governance and the viability of its business model, including around its Ingenuity technology arm.
Measures by the company to soothe investor jitters, including a search for a new non-executive chair and Moulding’s decision to give up his golden share, have done little to slow the tumble in share price.
However, the company’s third-quarter results revealed a 34% increase in group revenue from the previous year to reach £508m.
THG also appointed Andreas Hansson, an executive from Japanese holding company SoftBank, to its board last week to assure investors about its ongoing relationship with the company following its $730m (£530m) investment in THG this year.
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