I have met many, perhaps too many, company bosses that put in little effort into their businesses and expect it all to happen for them.
However, I have never met Mike Ashley or his son-in-law Michael Murray but I have an immense admiration for their efforts to drive value for Frasers Group (LON:FRAS) shareholders, especially for Ashley with 73% of the £3.65bn group’s equity.
A veritable myriad of interests lie within the Frasers portfolio, with brand names inside including Sports Direct, House of Fraser, Flannels, 18 Montrose, Amara Living, Evans Cycles, Everlast and Everlast Gyms, Frasers, Game & Belong, Gieves & Hawkes, I Saw It First, Jack Wills, Slazenger, Sofa.Com, Studio, USA Pro, USC, Agent Provocateur, Donnay, Camprio, Carlton, Game, karrimor, Firetrap, GUL, gelert, Lillywhites, Lonsdale, MuddyFox, LA Gear, scott, Nevica, Sondico, SoulCal & Co, Tessuiti and Van Mildert – the list seems endless.
And all the above are just its direct retail interests – however, Ashley, through Frasers has investment stakes in AO World, Currys, Hugo Boss, THG, boohoo Group, ASOS, and more.
Of late Mike Ashley has also been getting stuck into buying up shopping centres, just at a time when so many groups are closing down High Street shops all over the country.
Frasers Group CEO Michael Murray has commented that the group is striving to re-invent and elevate retail for UK shoppers, bringing the very best brands, environments and experiences to all of Frasers’ customers across the country.
It has recently purchased the 600,000 sq.ft. Princesshay Shopping Centre in Exeter, the Fremlin Walk Shopping Centre in Kent and the 65,000 sq.ft. Olympus Centre retail park in Gloucester.
Murray stated that:
“The acquisition of Princesshay, Fremlin Walk and The Olympus Centre reinforces our commitment to investing in physical retail.
Securing properties which serve as the primary retail destination for the community remains a top priority for us.
Such acquisitions unlock new growth opportunities for our retail concepts, while revitalising high streets and physical shopping locations up and down the country.”
But just buying up properties across the UK is not enough for the dynamic duo.
Last week alone Frasers added to its holding in the Mulberry Group (LON:MUL), as I featured on Monday of last week, despite having been rejected in its 130p a share proposed offer for the handbag company.
Hours after the market closed on Friday night, it put out a statement with reference to making a Possible Cash Offer for the Somerset-based leathergoods company.
It has stated that it is considering making a 150p a share cash offer for the balance of the Mulberry equity that it does not already own, but it needs acceptance of the proposal first of all from Ong Beng Seng’s Challice Limited, which controls 56% of the stock, against Frasers’ 37% stake.
Frasers stated that it believes that the £10m recent Subscription for the group will not be enough, it is Frasers’ belief that this will likely lead to another capitalisation event within the medium-term timeframe unless there is immediate and very real change at the company.
Emphasising its intentions, Frasers stated that despite Mulberry’s catastrophic results, its necessity for emergency funding, and difficult market backdrop, Frasers strongly believes it can provide the appropriate insulation and investment to support a much-loved British brand.
As part of the Frasers portfolio, the Mulberry brand would be provided with the platform to ensure its long-term survival and success.
We will await the response from Challice to see how the situation plays out.
Frasers Group shares are trading at around 811p, valuing it at £3.65bn, while Mulberry Group closed at 112.5p on Friday night, capitalising it at £78.8m.
On another front, last Thursday, Frasers declared that it was making a £10m strategic investment in Matt Moulding’s THG scheme to spin-off its Ingenuity technology arm.