THG PLC (LSE:THG) founder and chief executive Matt Moulding has said listing in London “just sucked from start to finish” and he wished to have chosen New York for a flotation.
The retailer has halved in value since the IPO in September 2020, but Moulding said that the business is “in better shape than it’s ever been” and “it’s just operating in this environment [that] sucks.”
READ: THG raises targets for Ingenuity arm, will split founder's roles
When asked if he would IPO again, in an interview with GQ at the GQ Heroes conference, he said: “Shit, no. No. I wouldn't… There are scenarios where if you're not an individual leading a big company, then I think the UK market can work really well. But there aren't any examples, I don't believe, where an individual brings a big company to a public market and it can go well, certainly as you get to a certain scale anyway.”
Last month, the firm committed to appointing a non-executive chair to split Moulding’s role, who also agreed to sell his golden share.
However, some City observers think Moulding has hinted at potential privatisation in last week’s interview.
“I'm a big shareholder – more than half of the business is owned by me and a few people that I'm close with,” he said when questioned on how to prop the share price up again.
“The share price only moves because of the balance of shares that might trade around. So I'll just… open mind.”
No statement from THG so far this morning after those extraordinary comments from Matt Moulding. Shares up 4.4% to 212.8p, maybe on take private hopes? Maybe camp THG thought it was a good interview.. https://t.co/HsmsILnZwY
— Ashley Armstrong (@AArmstrong_says) November 8, 2021
In response to only 1.2% of shares being shorted, the British businessman told GQ that the “undisclosed shorts” were a key part of the attack.
“What you do is you don't let anyone know who you are. So you operate from the Bahamas or from Switzerland or from these territories, and you short 0.49%, and maybe four or five or six of you as friends, obviously not legally working together, but magically you do operate together, you come on the undisclosed amounts. And that's how you do it.”
As for Softbank’s option to buy 20% of the Ingenuity arm for US$1.6bn, Moulding said it’s not clear yet whether it will happen, though he commented “it’s better than they [Softbank] anticipated, by their own words”.
Shares rose 2% to 208p in the late morning, having risen as much as 6% earlier on Monday.