thg boss and founder matthew moulding – dubbed the ‘buff billionaire’ for his ragstoriches story and gym bunny physique – wishes he had never taken his company public after last year telling a conference that he should not have listed in london for a 77 billion ipo back in september 2020 and that the experience “has just sucked from start to finish” the fact that this week he has been batting off takeover rumours is unlikely to have softened his mood indeed while manchesterbased thg runs highly successful beauty and nutrition websites including lookfantastic cult beauty and myprotein both thg and moulding have rarely been out of the headlines the latest this week forcing moulding to dismiss “numerous” takeover approaches as “unacceptable” saying they undervalued the company at a time when he would much rather be talking about robust trading the company has confirmed that while there had been interest from third parties the company was not currently involved in any talks but the real question is where now for thg and its toned titan it all started in 2004 when the resourceful moulding got 640000 together and set up the hut group to sell music and dvds online by 2017 the business had pivoted to become one of the uk’s few tech unicorns worth 32 billion and selling beauty and nutrition in typically contrary style in the middle of the pandemic thg listed on the london stock exchange with the biggest london ipo in years yet the sparkle quickly vanished and ever since moulding has enjoyed a mixed relationship with critics of his company railing against the city and financial journalists for their coverage and analysis and handing over a dossier to regulators for what thg described as a coordinated attack on its share price responding to the latest coverage moulding said that the board had “concluded that each and every proposal to date has been unacceptable failing to reflect the fair value of the group and confirms that thg is not currently in receipt of any approaches” the news sent thg shares up 15 to around 141 – but boy did they need it with trading way off the flotation price of 643 and some 87 off their peak of 1076 in september 2021 since then thg has been battered and bruised notably for allowing moulding to serve as both executive chair and chief executive – running counter to corporate governance norms indeed thg seems to have been determined the keep raising its head above the parapet with the board also signing off a preflotation deal allowing moulding to acquire a number of thg properties before leasing them back to the company for around 244 million a year it says this was a way of cutting debt growing increasingly spooked by the turbulence in november last year blackrock  thg’s largest institutional shareholder with a 101 stake halved its holding dropping the share value by 9 to a then record low of 253 moulding tried to calm investor nerves by hiring head hunter russell reynolds to search for a new nonexecutive chair with business luminary charles allen taking up the role on march 22 in a move designed to help it prepare for a premium listing on the main london stock exchange rather than its current standard listing thg also appointed an executive from its japanese backer softbank as a nonexecutive director in a bid to dispel doubts about its relationship with softbank which invested 730 million in thg last year the irony is that news of the offers has come just as thg confirmed a 35 increase in revenues to 28 billion helping push adjusted earnings up 7 to 207 million first quarter results also showed a 16 leap in revenue to 669 million moulding said it was a strong performance that was ahead of the targets set when thg went public and he singled out the strong performance of ingenuity a division building directtoconsumer websites for other companies which is key part to the company’s growth plans as for the uk ipo moulding said previously “now theres a reason i should have gone to the us and actually id have had no profile as well which would have suited me no one would have written on me if id have been listed in the us but it just is what it is next year 2022 it will be a different lesson”