If you are active in the UK equity markets, the thg share price has likely been one of the most polarizing and heavily debated topics on your watchlist. Once touted as the crown jewel of British tech IPOs, the parent company of Lookfantastic and Myprotein—formerly known as The Hut Group—witnessed an extraordinary peak followed by a brutal, multi-year valuation collapse. However, recent corporate actions have completely rewritten the investment thesis. Trading as LSE:THG, the company has entered a critical new phase. In this comprehensive guide, we analyze the current thg share price, the successful 2025 demerger of its Ingenuity division, recent financial earnings, and the catalysts that could drive a long-awaited recovery.
The LSE:THG Rollercoaster: A Brief History of the Share Price
To understand where the thg share price is headed, we must first look at how it arrived at its current valuation. When THG plc floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2020, it was hailed as a landmark moment for the UK tech sector. The company's roots trace back to 2004 when Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore founded the business, initially selling CDs and DVDs online. In its early days, the company operated a fulfillment model out of Guernsey to leverage the Low Value Bulk Relief (LVBR) tax loophole, bypassing VAT on low-cost items. As that loophole closed, the company pivoted sharply toward brand ownership, acquiring online beauty retailer Lookfantastic in 2010 and sports nutrition giant Myprotein in 2011.
By the time of its flotation in 2020, THG had evolved into an e-commerce giant. Floated at an IPO price of 500p, the company raised £1.88 billion, valuing the group at a staggering £5.4 billion. Backed by global banking giants acting as joint bookrunners, the initial wave of market euphoria saw the stock surge, peaking at over 800p in early 2021.
However, the optimism was short-lived. A combination of factors triggered one of the most dramatic crashes in recent LSE history. Firstly, institutional investors grew highly skeptical of the company's "dual-class share" structure. Under these rules, founder and CEO Matthew Moulding held a "golden share" that gave him veto power over hostile takeovers but disqualified the stock from inclusion in the prestigious FTSE 250 index. This exclusion prevented passive tracker funds from purchasing the stock, severely limiting liquidity and institutional demand.
Secondly, the market struggled to value the company's proprietary technology and logistics platform, THG Ingenuity. Pitching itself as a high-margin, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and end-to-end logistics provider, Ingenuity was treated by management as the ultimate valuation driver. Yet, external analysts increasingly viewed it as an opaque "black box" that lacked independent commercial validation. When a high-profile, £1.6 billion option agreement with SoftBank's Vision Fund was terminated in 2022 due to challenging market conditions, investor confidence completely evaporated.
By 2023, the thg share price had plummeted into "penny stock" territory, bottoming out in the sub-30p range. High-profile private equity firms, including Apollo Global Management, circled the business with buyout offers, but Matthew Moulding and the board rejected these bids, arguing they heavily undervalued the company's core assets. What followed was a multi-year effort to restructure, streamline, and ultimately unlock the value hidden behind a complex corporate structure.
The Structural Pivot: The 2025 Ingenuity Demerger
The turning point for the thg share price came with the board's decision to execute a radical structural pivot. For years, analysts and activist investors had argued that THG was suffering from a "conglomerate discount." The market was valuing the entire group at less than the standalone value of its premier consumer divisions: Beauty and Nutrition. Activist investors, most notably Kelso Group, began buying up shares and publicly advocating for a demerger, arguing that the true value of Myprotein and Lookfantastic was being suppressed by the cash-consumptive nature of the logistics division.
The drag was primarily caused by the massive capital expenditure (capex) required to fund and build out the Ingenuity logistics infrastructure. In late 2024, THG announced it was progressing with plans to spin off its technology and logistics division. The culmination of this strategy occurred in January 2025, when THG successfully completed the demerger of THG Ingenuity into an independent, privately owned entity. To fund the spin-off through to its cash-flow breakeven point, the group raised £95.4 million via an equity placement and share subscription. This fundraise attracted notable backing, including a strategic £10 million investment from Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group and a personal £10 million contribution from Matt Moulding.
By separating the capital-heavy Ingenuity business, the remaining public company—informally known as "RemainCo"—was instantly transformed into a leaner, highly cash-generative consumer brand powerhouse. The immediate benefit to the thg share price was clear: the massive capex drag of building out global fulfillment centers was gone, paving the way for significantly improved free cash flow.
Simultaneously, the demerger allowed THG to resolve its long-standing corporate governance and index eligibility issues. On January 6, 2025, the company officially transferred its listing to the newly established "Equity Shares (Commercial Companies)" (ESCC) category on the London Stock Exchange. This transfer removed the historical listing hurdles, making THG fully eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK Index Series. For the first time, institutional tracker funds could programmatically buy the stock, removing a major structural headwind that had depressed the thg share price for years.
Divisional Deep Dive: What Drives the Post-Demerger THG?
Post-demerger, THG plc operates through two primary, highly scalable consumer-facing divisions. To assess the future trajectory of the thg share price, investors must look closely at the operational metrics of these two core engines.
THG Beauty: The Prestige Retail Powerhouse
THG Beauty is a dominant player in the global online prestige beauty market. It operates some of the UK’s and US’s most visited beauty e-commerce portals, including Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty, and Dermstore, alongside a curated portfolio of owned brands like ESPA, Christophe Robin, and Perricone MD. Beauty retail is inherently a relationship business, and THG's ability to maintain direct distribution agreements with global conglomerates like L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, and Shiseido has cemented its market-leading position.
In the fiscal year 2025, THG Beauty proved to be the group’s most resilient segment, generating £1.11 billion in revenue. The division has consistently outperformed the wider UK prestige beauty market, driven by steady customer retention, high average order values, and strategic retail partnerships.
The momentum has accelerated into 2026. According to the company's Q1 2026 trading update, THG Beauty delivered continuing constant-currency (CCY) revenue growth of +5.8%, bringing in £233.3 million for the quarter. This performance was bolstered by a significant operational turnaround in the United States and a 7% surge in order volume in its core UK market. By maintaining promotional discipline and focusing on high-margin prestige brands, the Beauty division continues to support the group's overall EBITDA margin expansion.
THG Nutrition: Myprotein and the Active Lifestyle Market
THG Nutrition is anchored by Myprotein, which has grown to become the world’s largest direct-to-consumer online sports nutrition brand. The division also spans broader wellness categories, including vitamins, activewear, and hydration products.
Historically, THG Nutrition was a massive profit driver, but it faced severe headwinds between 2023 and 2024 due to record-high commodity pricing for whey protein. Whey is the primary raw material for Myprotein’s core powders, and the price spike heavily squeezed the division’s operating margins. To combat this, THG initiated a comprehensive global rebranding of Myprotein in late 2024, shifting the brand's identity from a pure bodybuilding discount label to a premium, active lifestyle brand.
This rebrand, combined with a gradual cooling of global whey protein commodity prices, has led to a major margins recovery in 2025 and 2026. Nutrition margins are projected to expand to 7.4% in FY2026, up from just 4.2% in FY2025.
Furthermore, THG Nutrition is aggressively expanding into offline retail and licensing. In March 2026, the company announced a landmark strategic partnership with Greencore Group, a prominent UK food producer, to launch a range of protein-enriched convenience foods. This partnership directly targets the rapidly expanding active health and wellness market, providing a highly scalable offline revenue stream. The success of these initiatives was reflected in the Q1 2026 trading update, where THG Nutrition reported a stellar +8.8% continuing CCY revenue growth to £159.8 million.
Q1 2026 Financial Performance and Insider Confidence
The financial health of THG has drastically improved, shifting from a loss-making growth story to a structured, profitable business model. For investors analyzing the thg share price, the first half of 2026 has provided several highly encouraging fundamental signals.
The Q1 2026 Trading Update
Released in late April 2026, the first-quarter trading statement showed group revenues reaching £393.1 million, representing continuing constant-currency growth of +7.0%. This marks the group's strongest Q1 revenue growth performance since the peak pandemic year of 2021. The growth was achieved despite a minor 30 basis point headwind caused by supply chain disruptions in the Middle East.
Crucially, THG reiterated its full-year guidance for FY2026. The company is on track to meet market consensus expectations for an adjusted EBITDA of approximately £101.7 million, which would represent a dramatic 32.7% increase over the £76.6 million reported in FY2025.
Massive Insider Buying by Matthew Moulding
Perhaps the strongest vote of confidence in the restructured business came in late February 2026. Chief Executive Matthew Moulding, through his family investment company FIC Shareco, acquired a massive 24.39 million ordinary shares of THG.
Insider purchasing of this magnitude is a highly bullish indicator. It demonstrates that the founder, who knows the operational realities of the business better than anyone, believes the current market valuation of around 32p–33p is severely discounting the company's real worth. It also aligns the founder's interests directly with retail shareholders, helping to alleviate historic corporate governance concerns.
Balance Sheet De-Risking and the HMRC VAT Claim
Historically, high levels of debt and cash burn were a major drag on the thg share price. However, the post-demerger entity is highly focused on deleveraging. THG expects net debt to decline substantially to between £105 million and £130 million by the end of FY2026, down from £233 million in FY2025.
Moreover, the group is projecting positive free cash flow generation of £25 million to £50 million for the year. There is also a significant non-operational catalyst on the horizon: THG has lodged a substantial claim against HMRC regarding a 0% VAT ruling on protein powders. If this dispute is resolved successfully, it could result in a massive cash inflow of approximately £78 million, which would instantly wipe out a huge portion of the remaining net debt and provide a powerful catalyst for the share price.
THG Share Price Forecast: Bull vs. Bear Outlook
As THG plc begins to show consistent operational momentum, market analysts remain divided on the long-term outlook for the stock. Understanding both the bullish and bearish perspectives is critical for anyone considering adding the shares to their portfolio.
The Bull Case
The bullish thesis for the thg share price is built on structural simplification, margin expansion, and valuation mismatch.
- FTSE Index Inclusion: Now that the company is listed under the ESCC category, any future promotion into the FTSE 250 or FTSE All-Share indices will trigger mandatory buying from passive investment funds.
- Simplified Valuation: Without the "black box" of Ingenuity, analysts can easily value THG as a consumer retail stock. Peer comparison shows that THG is trading at a significant discount to historical multiples. Historically, pure-play online beauty and nutrition brands trade at EV/EBITDA multiples between 10x and 15x. Today, with an expected FY2026 EBITDA of £101.7 million and a market capitalization hovering around £1.04 billion, the stock trades at an attractive implied enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of roughly 11x (when accounting for net debt of ~£115 million).
- Myprotein's Offline Growth: The shift toward licensing, offline retail, and partnership deals (like the Greencore agreement) allows Myprotein to grow without heavy capital investment.
The current consensus price target among covering analysts stands at approximately 53.50p, with some bullish estimates reaching as high as 80.00p. Achieving even the consensus target would represent a massive 60%+ upside from today’s prices.
The Bear Case
Despite the positive momentum, skeptics argue that several risks could limit the upside of the stock:
- Shareholder Dilution: To fund the Ingenuity spin-off, the group increased its outstanding shares by approximately 18% over the past year. This dilution means that future earnings are spread across a larger pool of shares, dragging down earnings per share (EPS).
- Macroeconomic Volatility: While the company's direct revenue exposure to the Middle East is small (1.5%), any prolonged escalation in shipping times could inflate freight and supply chain costs, putting pressure on gross margins.
- Execution Risk: The global rebrand of Myprotein is a massive, multi-year undertaking. If consumers do not respond positively to the premium positioning, or if whey protein prices spike again, the Nutrition division's margins could quickly deteriorate.
Currently, some conservative analysts, including J.P. Morgan, have trimmed their price targets to around 26p, citing a higher discount rate and the execution risks associated with the post-demerger transition.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the current outlook for the THG share price?
The current outlook is highly transitional. Following the completed demerger of its Ingenuity division in January 2025 and strong Q1 2026 trading results, the stock is showing signs of stabilizing and rebuilding. While historical volatility remains a factor, the average consensus analyst price target is 53.50p, representing significant potential upside from the current trading price of around 33p.
Why did THG demerge its Ingenuity division?
THG demerged Ingenuity to simplify its business model and eliminate the massive capital expenditure required to run the logistics arm. The move leaves THG plc as a leaner, cash-generative consumer group focused entirely on its high-growth Beauty and Nutrition divisions, while also clearing the governance hurdles required for FTSE UK index eligibility.
Is THG plc currently profitable?
Yes, THG has shown a marked improvement in profitability. In its FY2025 preliminary results, the company reported a return to profitability, delivering £54.1 million in net income, representing a major recovery from its prior losses.
Who are the largest shareholders of THG?
Founder and CEO Matthew Moulding remains one of the largest shareholders, recently reinforcing his commitment by purchasing 24.39 million shares in February 2026. Other major investors include retail magnate Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which took a strategic stake during the late 2024 fundraising.
How will the HMRC VAT claim affect THG?
THG has a pending claim against HMRC regarding a 0% VAT ruling on protein powders. A successful resolution could result in an estimated £78 million cash inflow. This non-operational windfall would be used to drastically reduce net debt, representing a major positive catalyst for the thg share price.
Conclusion: Is THG Finally a Buy?
The story of the thg share price is transitioning from a speculative tech-bubble crash to a classic corporate turnaround. By executing the Ingenuity demerger and securing ESCC index eligibility, management has addressed the primary structural complaints that kept institutional investors away for years. Combined with accelerating revenue growth in Q1 2026, robust insider buying from Matt Moulding, and margin recovery in the Myprotein segment, the fundamentals are stronger than they have been in years. While execution risks and macroeconomic headwinds remain, the current valuation presents a compelling, asymmetric risk-reward profile for patient, value-focused investors.
