It never rains but it pours, especially, it seems, if you are still sheltering in what used to be called The Hut Group. The recently renamed THG was battered again yesterday after one of its largest shareholders almost halved its stake.
BlackRock, the second largest shareholder in the ecommerce group after Matt Moulding, THG’s founder, sold 58 million shares at 195p apiece, a 10 per cent discount on Monday’s closing price. The sale represented about half of BlackRock’s 10 per cent stake in the company.
THG’s share price has slumped by about two thirds since the start of September amid corporate governance concerns and questions surrounding the true value of its Ingenuity technology platform. Understandably, the sale did nothing to help morale among THG investors and the stock dropped another 20p, or 9.2 per cent, to 197½p.
It wasn’t only THG that disappointed, though. Corporate updates from some of London’s biggest companies weighed on the FTSE 100. Quarterly trading statements from BP and Flutter Entertainment underwhelmed and their shares retreated by 12p, or 3.4 per cent, to 345p and by £10.80, or 7.7 per cent, to £129.55, respectively. Standard Chartered shed 39¾p, or 7.8 per cent, to 466¼p, after it said that income for the full year would be similar to the previous 12 months.
The Footsie fell 13.81 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7,274.81, further hampered by lower commodities prices affecting mining stocks. Antofagasta led the sell-off, falling 78½p, or 5.5 per cent, to £13.60, but the list that followed suit was pretty comprehensive: Anglo American shed 92½p, or 3.3 per cent, to £27.20; BHP declined 56¾p, or 2.9 per cent, to £18.67¼; Glencore lost 11¾p, or 3.2 per cent, to 354½p; and Rio Tinto shed 100p, or 2.2 per cent, to £44.60½. Ferrexpo was among the heaviest fallers on the FTSE 250, dropping 20½p, or 6.6 per cent, to 291½p. The overall index was down 71.22 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 23,140.
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AstraZeneca rose to the top of the FTSE 100 on the back of the previous day’s news that the drugs group had offloaded two respiratory medicines for $270 million. The shares closed up 289p, or 3.2 per cent, at £94.27.
Rentokil Initial rose 11p, or 1.9 per cent, to 605¾p after the pest control provider was given a boost by analysts at Berenberg, who swapped their “sell” recommendation” for a “hold”.
Investors hung up on HomeServe, though, after analysts at Credit Suisse swapped their “outperform” for a “neutral” recommendation. The Swiss bank warned that there were nearer-term challenges in the Checkatrade business that they had expected, which would “limit growth and elongate losses”. The insurance-based repairs group fell 24p, or 2.8 per cent, to 836p.
Investors were unimpressed, too, by Greencoat UK Wind after the infrastructure fund said that it had agreed to buy a 17.5 per cent stake in the Burbo Bank offshore wind farm for £250 million. The FTSE 250 group also launched an open offer, subscription and placing at a price of 132p a share to help to fund the acquisition. If the company had hoped that the news would blow away the London market, then it was disappointed, because the shares pomptly declined by 7p, or 5 per cent, to close at 134½p.
Elsewhere, James Fisher & Sons added 11p, or 2.7 per cent, to 424p after the Cumbria-based marine services provider said that it had sold its testing services unit to Phenna Group for £5.7 million.
Shackles are off for Vitruvian
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An early investor in Darktrace will pocket about £70 million by cutting its stake in the cybersecurity company after a lock-up agreement expired (Simon Duke writes).
Vitruvian Partners, the private equity firm, will offload 11 million shares in the developer — about a third of its holding — after a sharp rise in its valuation since it went public in May.
Early backers had been barred from selling for six months after the listing, but the freeze ends today. Employees and other investors, including Mike Lynch, the controversial billionaire, are now free to bank profits.
Some early backers had secured waivers from brokers to break the lock-up. KKR, Summit, Hoxton Ventures and Balderton have offloaded shares since the float.
Darktrace, formed in 2013 by Lynch, 56, and other cybersecurity specialists, enjoyed a striking debut, with its shares rising from the 250p offer price to a high of 985p in September to earn the firm a place in the FTSE 100. However, it has since lost a third of its value after a bearish research note from Peel Hunt and concerns that insiders might sell. Its shares fell 7.2 per cent to close 49p lower at 632½p last night.
Wall Street report
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Another day, another set of records. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 138.79, 0.4 per cent, to 36,052.63 — its first close above 36,000; the S&P 500 added 16.98, 0.4 per cent, to 4,630.65; and the Nasdaq rose 53.69, 0.3 per cent, to 15,649.60.
