Frasers Group has invested £22m to take a 5 per cent stake in boohoo. This follows its recent moves on Asos, Currys and AO.
Frasers now has a 10.6 per cent stake in Asos, making it the third largest shareholder, and this, along with this latest boohoo shares buy, appears to form something of a strategic approach to develop future trading relationships. Some suggest that Frasers is positioning itself to mount a takeover bid for Asos. And, of course, there is still potentially a score to be settled over the administrator’s sale of Debenhams to boohoo which wiped out Frasers’ £150m investment. Were it to acquire Asos, it would be in a position to compete head-to-head with boohoo which is said to be struggling to retain customers.
In a statement, Frasers said: “Boohoo is an attractive proposition with its laser focus on young female consumers. We see potential synergies and an opportunity to strengthen our own brand proposition in collaboration with Boohoo, most obviously with Frasers Group brands I Saw it First and Missguided.”
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