E-commerce giant THG said is to forge ahead with plans to demerge its tech services arm Ingenuity (which provides full e-comm services for third-parties) into a standalone private business at an equity valuation of up to £100 million.

The company, which owns the giant Lookfantastic beauty e-tailer, along other ops, said last month that it was mulling options for a demerger of Ingenuity, something shareholders have been urging.

Its plan will enable THG to boost its balance sheet by shifting focus to its THG Beauty and THG Nutrition units.

The company had planned to raise about £75 million in equity via a placing and subscription and a retail offer of ordinary shares, to ensure adequate levels of funding. But on Friday it said the fundraise was oversubscribed and it raised £95.4 million from existing and new shareholders. Founder and CEO Matthew Moulding invested £10m.

THG also reported third-quarter results and said it expects its full-year performance to be within its consensus range. It had previously forecast its full-year core earnings at the lower end of market expectations.

In the Q3 update, it said it saw continued growth in THG Beauty and THG Ingenuity revenue (external), with improving trends in THG Nutrition. Its beauty advent calendar order run rate is materially higher year on year.

Total revenue actually fell 5.2% to £442.8 million and is down 4.1% in the year so far at £1.376 billion. Continuing revenue fell only 2% at £433.1 million during the quarter and is down 0.3% at £1.333 billion in the year so far.

THG Beauty revenue rose 2.3% to £254.7 million in Q3 and rose 5.2% to £775 million in the year to date. 

THG Ingenuity revenue rose 15% in Q3 to £44 million and 13.5% in the first nine months of the year to £124.2 million.

Performance in the UK (which makes up over half of online Beauty revenue) was “notably strong with active customers in growth (+5%)”.

Lookfantastic also launched its first flagship retail store as part of its targeted omnichannel strategy to enhance brand awareness, customer appeal and aid product discovery.

Sales have recovered from July and improved steadily through the quarter.

Offline revenue growth of was 17% in the quarter supports its expectations of around 25% of total brand sales coming from offline channels over the medium-term.

Matthew Moulding, said: “Today we have separately announced significant progress on our strategy to demerge THG Ingenuity into a private company supported by major shareholders. THG PLC will remain a listed leading consumer brands group, with our planned transfer to the ESCC well on track.

“It was especially pleasing to see another solid quarter of delivery from both our Beauty and Ingenuity businesses, rewarding the significant overhaul of their respective operating models during 2022 and 2023. The short-term disruption from the major rebrand of Myprotein is now behind us, and we were pleased that in September Nutrition delivered its best sales performance since January.”

Written with Reuters