Mike Ashley’s Fraser Group is reportedly out of the running to acquire Debenhams after failing to match the £300m which the department store’s advisors were asking for.
According to The Times, this means that the advisors of the 232-year old store will face the choice of liquidating the business, selling off divisions to different buyers or selling to back to the hedge funds that own its debts.
Chris Wootton, chief executive of Frasers Group’s – which includes Sports Direct, Flannels, Evans Cycles and House of Fraser – is understood to have written to Darren Jones, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee, claiming the sale price was “impossible” for all but insiders to reach.
Debenhams has 124 stores in the UK and around 12,000 employees.
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