THG has rejected a bid worth £400-600m from former director Iain McDonald for its Myprotein brand.
McDonald – an early investor in ASOS PLC who also sits on the board of boohoo, now rebranded to Debenhams Group – is the executive chair of Selkirk Group PLC, a shell company founded last year.
In March 2024 he stepped down from the board of THG after 14 years, with THG founder Matt Moulding paying tribute to his ‘anchor’ and recalling early fallouts – especially one memorable ‘humdinger’ soon after he became an investor – but insisting the online retailer wouldn’t have been as successful without him.
However the founder and chief investment officer of Belerion Capital, who oversaw THG’s growth and evolution into a global leader in three major categories – beauty, nutrition and technology – is now seeking to prise the nutrition brand away from THG via Selkirk.
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Selkirk, which floated in November, was formed to acquire “an undervalued company or business in the UK” in the consumer, technology and digital media sectors and has backing from Angus Monro, a former non-exec director at THG, and former Tesco CEO Terry Leahy.
It is also backed by McDonald’s Belerion Capital as well as a subsidiary of Kelso Group, an activist investor that targeted the removal of THG chair Lord Charles Allen last year over his “lack of action and clarity”.
THG said the bid for Myprotein from Selkirk was “wholly unsolicited, largely unfunded and highly conditional”.
It added: “The majority of the consideration offered was in the form of newly issued Selkirk shares, and the remainder of the consideration would have been payable in cash from a new equity and debt issuance, which was largely unfunded and without appropriate detail on its source.
“The board considered that the proposal fundamentally undervalued Myprotein and its prospects, and in addition carried significant execution complexity and risks, in particular the ability of Selkirk to raise sufficient funding.
“On this basis, the proposal was unequivocally rejected by the board. THG confirms that there has been no further engagement with Selkirk since the proposal was rejected.”
It said that following the demerger of tech platform Ingenuity on 2nd January 2025 and THG’s recent refinancing, the company has reduced its gross and net debt, secured long-term banking facilities and is focused on executing its growth and cash generation strategy.