Matthew Moulding had left nothing to chance.
马修·莫尔丁(Matthew Moulding)认为自己把一切都准备好了。
The 49-year-old founder of British tech sensation THG opted to pre-record his speech to shareholders from the company’s new content production facility in Manchester.
这位49岁的英国科技巨头THG的创始人选择在公司位于曼彻斯特的新内容制作中心提前录制他对股东的讲话。
The carefully stage-managed investor event was designed to draw back the curtain on “Ingenuity”, THG’s star subsidiary and the rationale for investment from Japan’s SoftBank.
这场精心策划的投资者活动旨在揭开THG的明星子公司“Ingenuity”的神秘面纱，以及日本软银投资的理由。
But first Moulding had a message for the doubters.
但首先，莫尔丁向怀疑者传达了一个信息。
“We are clearly aware of the short attack that was initiated against THG in the past 10 days, centring around the capabilities of our Ingenuity platform,” he explained, referencing a recent scathing analyst note.
他提到了最近一份措辞严厉的分析师报告，并解释道，“我们清楚地意识到在过去10天里针对THG的攻击，质疑我们的Ingenuity平台的能力。”
“It’s fortuitous, therefore, that we have the opportunity today . . . to set the record straight on any claims made.”
“因此，我们很庆幸今天有这样的机会……澄清所有的指控。”
Then the share price started falling.
然后，股价开始下跌。
By the time the glossy presentation on the “genius of Ingenuity” wrapped up, THG’s share price was down 5 per cent. As the event shifted to live questions, it tumbled a further 10 per cent. After Moulding and his business partners finished the call, the stock went into free fall, ending the day down more than a third, wiping a cool £1.85bn from the market value of the business formerly known as The Hut Group.
当这段关于“Ingenuity的天才”的光鲜介绍结束时，THG的股价下跌了5%。当活动转入现场提问时，股价又下跌了10%。莫尔丁和他的商业伙伴结束这次电话会议后，股价呈自由落体的态势，当天收盘时跌幅超过三分之一，从这个以前被称为The Hut集团的企业市值中抹去18.5亿英镑。
One City adviser called the question and answer session “shambolic”. Another despaired at Moulding’s broadside against short sellers: “Even if you think it, you shouldn’t say it.”
一位伦敦金融城的顾问称问答环节“混乱不堪”。另一位则对莫尔丁对卖空者的抨击感到绝望：“即使你这么想，也不应该说出来。”
For the London stock market, THG’s share price crash was another embarrassment in a year of tech-related fiascos, from Deliveroo’s disastrous March IPO to the recent 50 per cent fall in Alphawave’s shares.
对于伦敦股市来说，THG的股价暴跌是今年与科技相关的一系列事件中的又一个尴尬，从Deliveroo的3月份灾难性的IPO，到最近Alphawave的股价下跌50%。
But the crisis of confidence has also left analysts and investors asking more fundamental questions about the cash-burning purveyor of beauty products and protein shakes that raised £1.9bn in a marquee IPO just over a year ago.
但是，信心危机也让分析师和投资者对这家烧钱的美容产品和蛋白质奶昔供应商提出了更多触及其根本的问题，该公司一年多前在一次引人注目的IPO中筹集了19亿英镑。
Social media influencing platform
社交媒体影响平台
When tech consultant Alan Wilson and former lawyer Niki Tibble launched carbon offsetting start-up MoreTrees in November 2020, they probably did not expect the business to be the target of a multimillion-pound buyout five months later.
当技术顾问艾伦·威尔逊(Alan Wilson)和前律师妮基·蒂布尔(Niki Tibble)在2020年11月推出碳抵消初创企业MoreTrees时，他们可能没有想到，该企业会在5个月后成为数百万英镑收购的目标。