The Hut Group billionaire Moulding loaned £151m from local council
The billionaire owner behind The Hut Group (THG) has been lent £151m by Warrington council, after it secured a £4.5bn stock market listing last year.
THG’s Matt Moulding was given access to a £200m loan facility by the Cheshire local council in October for Icon 3 Holdco, a company he indirectly controls.
In one of the largest council loans on record, Moulding has taken three drawdowns from the £200m pot, totalling a little more than £151m, the Financial Times first reported.
The sum was more than 10 times the average loan taken out by other local companies, according to Warrington council’s official filings.
The loan facility was also arranged around the same time Moulding became a self-made billionaire following THG’s London float last September.
Last year it was revealed Moulding had transferred many of THG’s properties into his personal ownership, which means the billionaire could receive some £19m a year in rent.
THG in May partnered with SB Management (SBM), a subsidiary of SoftBank, in a deal that will see it take a stake worth a total $2.33bn in the online retailer.
SBM’s stake in the young business now values the subsidiary at some £4.9bn.