THG earnings margin anticipated to be below market expectations as quarterly revenue up
E-commerce giant THG has said its adjusted core earnings margin would fall short of market expectations, in otherwise buoyant results on Tuesday.
The retail group posted a 29.7 per cent jump in fourth-quarter revenue, setting it on a good course for the year
However, THG blamed adverse currency movements as it forecast that adjusted core earnings margin would not meet expectations.
It pointed to the comparable period of early 2021, where it saw record prices among its nutrition division as lockdown shoppers thought about their health.
THG said it expected 2022 revenue would grow by 22 per cent to 25 per cent.
The company’s results come after it handed over a dossier of data to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in a bid to prove hedge funds and stockbrokers conspired to push its share price down.
THG chief executive Matt Moulding believes a dossier of irregular stock market trading and short-selling data will prove collusion against his company, according to reports in the Financial Times earlier this month.
The City regulator is probing the actions of a sales person at Numis, after they urged clients to sell shares, claiming THG had accounting irregularities.
A series of sell orders saw almost £2bn knocked off THG’s valuation within hours on the firm’s investor day on 12 October last year.
It followed reports over the value of THG’s tech licensing business Ingenuity, weak cashflow and a lack of robust corporate leadership.