THG has rejected an “unsolicited” bid worth up to £600m for its Myprotein brand from former director and early investor in the firm Iain McDonald.
McDonald, who also sits on the board of Manchester ecommerce giant boohoo (recently rebranded as Debenhams Group) is the executive chair of Selkirk Group PLC, a shell company founded last year to acquire “undervalued company or business in the UK” in the consumer, technology and digital media sectors.
Other key figures at Selkirk include director Angus Monro, himself a former non-exec director at THG, and McDonald’s Belerion Capital. It is also backed by Kelso Group, an activist investor with a significant holding in THG that sought to oust chair Lord Charles Allen last year over his “lack of action and clarity”.
McDonald stepped down from the board of THG last year after 14 years in what appeared to be an amicable separation, although THG founder Matt Moulding (pictured) publicly noted the pair had had their differences over the course of the previous decade-and-a-half, while adding that the company wouldn’t have been as successful without him.
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.”
THG has reportedly been under pressure from investors to sell Myprotein since at least 2023, but on this occasion concluded that, following the demerger of its tech platform Ingenuity in January, plus 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.
