Company
LON:SPD
Frasers Group plc, formerly Sports Direct International plc, is a British retailing group. Established in 1982 by Mike Ashley, the company is the United Kingdom's largest sports-goods retailer and operates roughly 670 stores worldwide.
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The billionaire has confirmed he was mulling a takeover bid for Debenhams but the department store chain said that still wouldn’t solve its immediate cash shortfall
Sports Direct said Mike Ashley would step down as chief executive of the sportswear chain to become the boss of Debenhams under its proposal to rescue the struggling retailer
Debenhams said there were "obvious concerns" with the proposal that Mike Ashley became chief executive as part of the deal since Sports Direct also owns direct competitor, House of Fraser.
The billionaire first called for a shareholder meeting earlier this month, but his requisition was invalid because Sports Direct held its near-30% stake via a third-party nominee account
Last week, Sports Direct offered to lend Debenhams £150mln interest-free and with no security if the department store chain agreed to appoint Mike Ashley as chief executive
The billionaire has offered Debenhams an interest-free £150mln loan on the condition that he is appointed chief executive and Sports Direct is issued with an additional 5% stake
“While we still have a way to go to return the business to an appropriate level of profitability, I believe that we have made and continue to make significant progress,” said chairman Stephen Marks
The billionaire has called for a general meeting, at which he will ask shareholders to sack all but one of Debenhams’ current board and appoint him to an “executive role”
Laith Khalaf, senior analysts at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the department store chain would need "a Lazarus-like recovery" after throwing out its 'in-line' profit forecasts from January
In a trading update, the department store said its guidance from a 10 January statement forecasting “profits in line with market expectations” for the full year was “no longer valid”
Sports Direct’s stake in Findel has risen above 30%, forcing the FTSE 250 group to make an offer for all of Findel’s shares
Two activist investors have secured spots on the board of Premier Foods
Hammerson offloaded £570mln worth of properties last year and plans a further £500mln of disposals this year as part of a strategy to sell its out-of-town retail parks and reduce its exposure to struggling department stores
The buyout, struck early this morning, will rescue 96 of the company’s 121 remaining stores and preserve most of its 2,000 staff
Debenhams was once valued at £1.7bn, but it is now hanging on thanks to the generosity of its lenders, who have agreed to pump in an extra £40mln whilst it gets its affairs in order
The new facility also eases some of the restrictions on the department stores’ existing £286mln net debt load
Following news of a withdrawn bid to acquire Patisserie Valerie on Monday, the chief exec's seemingly opportunistic approach to Britain's struggling high street, and a lack of a coherent strategy, has some analysts speculating that he could
Mike Ashley's group offered £15mln to buy the business out of administration but was told by administrator KPMG it would need to offer up to £2mln more than that
Canada’s Sunrise Records is buying 100 of HMV’s UK stores for an undisclosed sum, although 27 underperforming branches will be closed down
Doug Putman, who runs the Canadian record retailer Sunrise Records, has emerged as a leading contender to buy HMV
