As bargain hunters flocked to Debenhams stores and its website this weekend to take advantage of slashed prices, Mike Ashley has moved to make a new offer for the Debenhams business. FRP Advisory had been seeking a buyer for the business but it fell into administration earlier this week when Fraser’s arch rival JD Sports withdrew its interest.
Ashley has, of course, made several well documented attempts to acquire the Debenhams business over the past year or so. Having been batted off by the Debenhams board, as well as having his shareholding in Debenhams wiped out by their actions, it is understood that he has returned to the fray wishing to take on around 25 of its stores and its online business. A consideration of £200m has been mooted. It was Mike Ashley who drove the removal of Debenhams previous CEO Sergio Bucher and chairman Ian Cheshire from the board. But it seems, to the onlooker, that Ashley also fell foul of replacement chairman Mark Gifford when he made accusations that he had been ‘frozen out’ of the negotiation process for the business and that the Debenhams board was not providing his team with adequate information.
The Debenhams department store chain has, as is widely known, traded dismally over the past few years, having been described as completely having lost its way, and now, with Arcadia having also entered administration, it has also lost a large part of its concessions business. Frasers finance director Chris Wootton is reported as having said that the Debenhams negotiations were on a knife edge and that Frasers hopes to be able to save as many jobs as possible.
However as the Debenhams board seeks to now append the blame for its collective failure on Covid-19, the cracks were appearing in the department store chain’s business performance years ago and had failed to be remedied under its watch. Recent comments from national press journalists describe Debenhams as a ‘frumpy white elephant’ which pretty much sums up the jaded current day position of this once respected department store.
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