Frasers’ Ashley labels Boohoo “desperate” after quick CEO move

We knew it wouldn’t take long for Frasers Group’s controlling shareholder Mike Ashley to respond to news of Boohoo Group naming a new CEO.

At the weekend, he suggested to The Sunday Times that Boohoo’s speedy appointment of insider and Debenhams CEO Dan Finley as its group CEO too was a “desperate” act.

In an email he said: “Independent shareholders be warned, desperate people do desperate things.”

To remind those who’ve forgotten, last month Frasers urged Karen Millen, Debenhams and PrettyLittleThing owner Boohoo to appoint Ashley himself as its new chief executive following John Lyttle’s decision to step down.

Frasers has a roughly 27% stake in Boohoo and is actually its biggest single shareholder. But Boohoo was never very likely to simply roll over and let Ashley take control. 

Ashley and Boohoo executive chair Mahmud Kamani haven’t exactly been best of friends since Boohoo bought failed Debenhams for £55 million in 2021. That came after Ashley had spent tens of millions on building up a big stake in the retailer but had been rebuffed by Debenhams’ then owners in his ambitions to control the business.

Regardless of that past history, the two were also unlikely to bond after Frasers had published a letter attacking Boohoo’s management at the same time as it called for billionaire Ashley to  be given its top job.

Late last week, Boohoo announced Debenhams chief Dan Finley as its new CEO and he’s remaining in charge of Debenhams too after spearheading a turnaround at the business. 

Before the CEO request Frasers had been pushing for some time for Ashley to become an unpaid adviser to Boohoo and for it to have a representative on the board. But it had also been unsuccessful here.

Meanwhile, the man in the hot seat, Finley, has said he wants to “collaborate” with all of the retailer’s shareholders and to “unlock value” for them. He’s also said he’s “looking forward to engaging and working with all our stakeholders and shareholders.”