The Hut Group completes €1bn capital raising

The Hut Group has announced a €1bn (£830m) raise in capital in order to deliver a “step- change” to its balance sheet ahead of “anticipated macro-economic” and “political changes arising from the general election and Brexit”.

The health and beauty platform has revealed BlackRock, a long term investor in The Hut Group, has teamed up with Belgian investment company Sofina to collectively inject around £66m in new equity.

The financing also included €600m (£501m) capital market loan, a new five-year £150m revolving credit facility provided by Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Citi, NatWest and JP Morgan, as well as a £200m deal providing secured debt and development facilities provided by Citi and CBRE Investment Advisory to THG’s newly created.

The substantial capital raising enables THG to drive greater investment in its leading beauty and wellness brands and Ingenuity, its propriety, end-to-end ecommerce solution.

The capital will also be used to invest in, and enhance its freehold properties within its THG events division, as well as ICON and THQ, the Group’s two developments at Manchester airport creating “best-in-class” content studios.

Matthew Moulding, founder and chief executive officer of THG, said: “The expanded capital raising is a landmark achievement and provides an exceptional growth and investment platform for the business. 

“The significant excess demand and new debt rating, and during the time of the general election, demonstrate the strength of THG’s business model and proposition and is further testament to the global model we’ve built.”

He added: “Our business continues to evolve with the demands of consumers, as we continue to invest across the Group to develop our people, infrastructure and particularly our proprietary ecommerce solution.”

Last month, The Hut Group secured a £510m of debt issuance with a seven-year maturity to help boost its digital and beauty offerings. 

The process was underwritten by Barclays, HSBC, Citi and Santander.