THG shareholder, West Coast Capital founder Sir Tom Hunter, has reiterated his support for the retail group as activist investors call for the business to be broken up.
Hunter described THG, led by Matt Moulding, as “world-class” and said he had added to his shareholding in the company when its price dropped below 50p almost a year ago.
Since then, the ecommerce company’s shares have increased by over 50% and were trading at over 86p last week.
However, shares were worth 500p back in 2020.
West Coast Capital initially put money into THG, formerly The Hut Group, in 2010.
It sold around £52m of shares at the fitness and beauty group’s IPO as well as a further tranche worth £32m in 2021.
West Coast Capital owns around 2% of THG, with Hunter remaining firm in his support of the company.
In September, the ecommerce giant revised down its sales forecast, but the next month indicated sales would fall no more than 5% during the whole of 2023.
THG is being targeted by activist investor Kelso Group in aims to break up the business.
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Hunter said: “We have bought more shares in THG in the year to March 2023.
“We think Matt and his team have built the number one nutrition brand in the world with MyProtein, they are in the top three beauty brands in the world and have built a world-class technology platform.
“The only people that don’t seem to get it is the London Stock Exchange, so fair enough. We will see what will happen.”
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