Matt Moulding, the owner of e-commerce group THG PLC (LSE:THG), has failed to find a buyer for his Icon Business Park - which is home to the London-listed group’s headquarters - after discussions with ICG Real Estate failed to materialise into an agreement.
Icon Business Park, located in Manchester, is owned by Moulding Capital and serves as the headquarters for THG as well as housing several of its key operations.
For a potential buyer to proceed with the purchase, approval from Warrington Borough Council is required to novate a £128 million loan associated with the property.
Moulding used the business park as security to cover £128 million of a £202 million loan, which several companies under his control borrowed from the council in 2020, the Financial Times revealed.
Although the council initially approved the loan novation to ICG in July, the deal did not move forward before the decision was met with criticism from Conservative councillor Mark Jervis, who expressed concerns about the council's handling of “flawed and erroneous arrangements”.
A Warrington Borough Council spokesperson said: “Cabinet approved a potential novation of an existing loan. However, for this to work it required the agreement of the council and two other parties. These agreements were not reached and therefore no novation was required.”
While the sale to ICG has fallen through, THG's operations as a tenant in the business park remain unaffected and there is still a possibility of a sale to another party in the future.
THG, which owns brands like MyProtein, CityAM and Coggle, is up more than 2% on Monday, with shares having opened at around 68p.