Local council extends huge loan to billionaire Matt Moulding, founder and boss of beleaguered online retailer The Hut Group
- Warrington lends another £18m to Moulding Capital, bringing total to £200m
- Moulding Capital is now the council’s single largest credit exposure
- Council says loan is safe but it is not known what the money is being used for
Exposure: Matt Moulding has repaid about £25million of the original council loan
A local council has extended a huge loan to billionaire Matt Moulding, the founder and boss of beleaguered online retailer The Hut Group.
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Labour-controlled Warrington council agreed earlier this month to lend another £18million to private company Moulding Capital Limited – which is owned by Moulding.
It was one of a series of loans worth a total of £200million made to the businessman’s interests, and represents the council’s largest single credit exposure.
Council documents seen by The Mail on Sunday say the new loan is ‘fully secured… against a portfolio of real estate assets’. It is not known what the loan is being used for.
A spokesman added that the council considered Moulding Capital Limited to be ‘a good credit risk’.
About £25million of the original council loan has been repaid. Moulding, reportedly a Conservative party donor, became landlord to THG – with brands including Cult Beauty and Myprotein – after a controversial sale and leaseback deal in the run-up to THG’s £5.4billion stock market flotation in 2020.
The deal nets Moulding £20million a year in rent on 30 commercial properties. He has also won approval from the council for a new plastics recycling plant.
THG has insisted that Moulding personally has never been a Tory donor. It said THG, the company he founded, has donated to a number of political parties.
The Manchester-based group’s shares have plunged by almost 80 per cent since flotation amid concerns about governance, strategy and managerial control.