THG Reportedly Receives Acquisition Proposal From Apollo Global Management

THG has reportedly received a non-binding acquisition proposal from Apollo Global Management.

The British online retail platform said the private equity firm has until May 15 to make a firm offer and that it is uncertain if it will do so, Seeking Alpha reported Monday (April 17).

THG and Apollo Global Management did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The owner of an online platform and eCommerce sites was valued at 10 billion pounds (about $12.4 billion) in 2021, but its shares have lost more than 90% of its value since then, and it was recently valued at 925 million pounds (about $1.1 billion), Reuters reported Monday.

The report attributed the shares’ drop in value to THG issuing several profit warnings over the last year, missing its revenue growth forecasts, encountering higher commodities prices and coping with delivery problems in December.

The news of the acquisition proposal comes on the heels of several partnerships recently announced by THG.

THG digital commerce company Ingenuity partnered Wednesday (April 12) with digital commerce experts Elastic Path to offer companies access to both Ingenuity’s technology stack and Elastic Path’s “composable commerce” capabilities.

Ingenuity CEO Vivek Ganotra said in a press release the combination will appeal to brands that “are looking to balance speed, cost and flexibility and at the same time rapidly scale and internationalize.”

THG announced April 6 a 10-year partnership with beauty eCommerce retailer Maximo Group in which THG Ingenuity will become the new platform for Maximo Group’s All Beauty and Fragrance Direct and will provide warehouse and fulfillment services in the United Kingdom.

“This represents the early fruits of our focus on larger enterprise customers and underlines our position as the online partner of choice for the prestige beauty industry,” THG CEO Matthew Moulding said at the time.

In a third new partnership, THG Ingenuity and G.O.A.T. Brand Labs said March 17 that they have begun a strategic partnership to build digital capabilities in India.

Ganotra said the partnership “will help G.O.A.T. Brand Labs’ brands and other Indian [direct-to-consumer (D2C)] brands to scale their eCommerce evolution to become the market leaders of their kind.”

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