Frasers buys more of ASOS and Boohoo

Forget rumours about what Frasers Group may or may be thinking of buying. We know that it’s definitely buying more of two underperforming online retail giants, ASOS and Boohoo.

Its holding in ASOS has now jumped from less than 18% recently to over 25% this week, both through directly owning the shares and through financial instruments.

Stock exchange filings showed an increase in Frasers’ voting rights linked to ASOS of a whisker over 25%. It’s now the second-largest shareholder in ASOS and is close to the largest (Bestseller owner Anders Holch Povlsen reportedly holds around 26%).

The company first took a stake in the under-pressure retailer in autumn 2022 when it acquired a 5% holding.

It started building its holding in Booho Group later than that but it has been just as acquisitive on that front. As of this week, it has a 22%+ holding, the news helping Boohoo’s battered share price to rise 3% on Thursday morning.

Frasers only started investing in Boohoo last summer and as of last month, it had a 17% holding.

There has been plenty of speculation around its intentions in buying stakes in the two giant fashion e-tailers. Would it want to mount full takeovers or engineer a merger? Is it just trying to have a bigger influence on two key stockists of branded fashion? Or does it think eventual recoveries in the share prices could give it a big payoff further down the line? But Frasers CEO Michael Murray has always insisted that the company just wants to be a supportive shareholder.