British e-commerce firm THG ends agreement with SoftBank

British e-commerce group THG said it had terminated its collaboration with a unit of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp due to challenging global market conditions.

THG said it has completed the internal separation of its key divisions but the call option with SoftBank to inject a further $1.6 billion into its technology arm THG Ingenuity will also not go ahead.

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The termination was mutually agreed, THG said.

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The British company, which also owns beauty retailer Lookfantastic, raised more than $1 billion in new equity last year, including $730 million from SoftBank.

SoftBank’s Northstar trading arm currently owns about 6.5% stake in THG, according to Refinitiv data.

SoftBank Group in May this year reported a record $26.2 billion loss at its Vision Fund investment arm as rising interest rates and political instability whiplashed high growth tech stocks.

THG shares, which have lost nearly 70% of their value so far this year after plunging last year, were down 1.6% by 0922 GMT.

Source: Reuters

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