Online retailer THG plans to spin off and list beauty business in 2022

(Reuters) -THG Plc will spin off and list its online beauty business next year, the British e-commerce company said on Thursday, as the unit focuses on growing its lineup of cosmetics and skin care products.

The company, which raised over $1 billion from Japan's SoftBank Group earlier this year, also said it was considering a separate listing of its nutrition business.

THG, which itself went public last year, said the listing would allow THG Beauty to grow its portfolio and build social media presence. The unit is home to brands including Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty and Dermstore.

The move is a part of the Manchester-based company's restructuring plan and comes just a month after it bought online beauty retailer Cult Beauty to bolster its digital presence.

"Today we also ... announce our commitment to list THG Beauty in 2022, which we believe will create further value for our shareholders," Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Moulding said in a statement.

Jefferies analysts said THG could retain majority ownership in the listing, adding they expect "THG's ambitions on the valuation front to be certainly greater than" the brokerage's estimate of 1.8 times THG Beauty's enterprise value to forward sales.

Sales of THG Beauty jumped 55.9% to 460.8 million pounds ($636.60 million) in the first half, the British company said in its interim results, while overall group revenue rose nearly 42%.

($1 = 0.7239 pounds)

(Reporting by Aditi Sebastian and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)