Frasers Group makes offer to buy all of Mulberry

Mulberry’s update late last week that came with news of a fundraising/share placing clearly came as a bombshell to Frasers Group as on Monday the company said that it had been unaware of it in advance and has now made an offer to buy the full company.

Frasers currently owns around 37% of the business and said Monday that it has “submitted a non-binding indicative offer to the board of Mulberry for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Mulberry, not currently owned by Frasers”. The offer is for 130p a share.

The Mulberry board had originally announced the fundraising on Friday and on Monday provided more details.

But Frasers said that while the board “provided a holding response on 29 September, given the accelerated timeframe associated with the proposed subscription and the need to progress the proposal expeditiously, Frasers considers their response to be wholly unsatisfactory. We have long been supportive of the brand and commercial opportunities available to the company. With our leading retail expertise and presence, and best in class distribution capability, we believe Frasers to be the best steward for returning Mulberry to profitability”.

It said it was “not aware of the proposed subscription until immediately prior to its announcement” despite having been a 37% shareholder since 2020.

The company also claimed it would have been willing to underwrite the subscription “in its entirety, potentially on better terms for the company. Given this total lack of engagement, we believe the status quo to be an untenable position for Frasers and the other minority holders of Mulberry shares”.

And it highlighted challenges for the business such as “rising costs, macroeconomic headwinds, and increased selectivity from its discretionary customer base”.

Plus it was “exceptionally concerned by the audit opinion in the latest annual report released on Friday, which notes a ‘material uncertainty’ related to going concern.”

The company has been a major minority shareholder in other businesses in the past, such as Debenhams, and it also said on Monday that it “will not accept another Debenhams situation where a perfectly viable business is run into administration. Accordingly, the board of Frasers is announcing a possible cash offer by Frasers for Mulberry”.

Mulberry shares had been priced at 103.22p early on Monday in a reaction to Friday’s announcement but they rose to 120p later after the Frasers news.

That puts the current market value of the business at just over £69 million but Frasers said that its offer would value it at around £83 million, which means £52.4 million for the shares that the company doesn’t already own. That’s actually a premium of 30% to the 100p subscription price of the fundraising that Mulberry announced last week. It’s also a premium of around 22% to the average three month price as of close of play on Friday.

Mulberry’s hasn’t yet responded.