Mike Ashley's retail empire buys into fashion giant Boohoo
20.06.2023 - 09:35
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The retail empire owned by billionaire Mike Ashley has bought into fashion giant Boohoo.
Frasers Group, which owns brands such as Sports Direct and House of Frasers, has become one of the largest single shareholders in the Manchester-headquartered giant.
The move comes after the group recently invested £75m in Bolton-headquartered electricals group AO before later increasing its stake to just over 21% to become its largest shareholder.
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Over the last 18 months, Frasers Group has acquired Lancashire-headquartered Studio Retail as well as Manchester's Missguided out of administration.
It also bought Manchester-based I Saw It First while it has been building a sizeable stake in fashion group N Brown, which is also headquartered in the city.
Frasers Group now owns 5% of Boohoo, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is worth around £440m.
Co-founder Mahmud Kamani remains the largest shareholder while other investors include Camelot Capital Partners, T. Rowe Price International, FIL Investment Advisors (UK) and Norges Bank Investment Management.
Frasers Group's investment in Boohoo also comes after it acquired an 8.9% stake in electricals retailer Currys earlier this week.
In May, BusinessLive reported that Boohoo lost more than £90m during its latest financial year as the cost-of-living crisis squeezed shoppers.
The group posted a pre-tax loss of £90.7m for the 12 months to February 28, 2023, compared to a profit of £7.8m in the prior year and £92.2m in the period before that.
Its revenue also slipped from £1.98bn to £1.76bn over the year although the latest figure is still ahead of the £1.23bn it reported in 2020.
UK revenue fell 9% in