THG ends investment deal with Japan’s SoftBank

The online shopping group THG has ended an agreement under which the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had agreed to invest in it, blaming ‘global macroeconomic conditions’

The online shopping group THG has ended an agreement under which the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had agreed to invest in it, blaming ‘global macroeconomic conditions’.

The company formerly known as The Hut Group, which owns a range of internet health and beauty retailers, secured $730m (£610m) of new investment from a division of SoftBank to help fund expansion of its technology platform a few months before it listed in London.

The deal included an option to invest £900m within 15 months to take a near 20% stake in Ingenuity, THG’s online retail services division which offers packages from web hosting to delivery for brands such as Homebase, Unilever and Danone. The deal would have put a £4.5bn valuation on that division alone, which at the time made up less than 1% of THG’s turnover.

The online shopping group THG has ended an agreement under which the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had agreed to invest in it, blaming ‘global macroeconomic conditions’.

The company formerly known as The Hut Group, which owns a range of internet health and beauty retailers, secured $730m (£610m) of new investment from a division of SoftBank to help fund expansion of its technology platform a few months before it listed in London.

The deal included an option to invest £900m within 15 months to take a near 20% stake in Ingenuity, THG’s online retail services division which offers packages from web hosting to delivery for brands such as Homebase, Unilever and Danone. The deal would have put a £4.5bn valuation on that division alone, which at the time made up less than 1% of THG’s turnover.