THG, SoftBank call off investment deal

THG was under the cosh on Tuesday after the ecommerce group said that it and SoftBank have called off a long-standing agreement for the Japanese conglomerate to buy a stake in the company for £1.1bn.

Last year, SB Management- a division of Softbank - invested $730m in THG through a placing, giving it a stake of around 8%. At the same time, THG agreed to grant SB a call option to buy a 19.9% stake in THG Ingenuity, the technology division, for $1.6bn.

However, THG said on Tuesday that the agreement has been terminated by mutual agreement "in light of global macroeconomic conditions".

At 1550 BST, the shares were down 4% at 67.20p.