Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group confirms interest in Topshop

Sports Direct founder looking into purchase of brands from Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire

Arcadia collapsed into administration last week 

Mike Ashley's Frasers Group has confirmed it is looking into buying brands including Topshop from Sir Philip Green's stricken Arcadia empire.

“We do tend to look at almost everything on the high street,” Chris Wootton, Frasers’s finance director, told the BBC’s Today programme.

He added: “The process has only just started so there’s a long way to go as to ascertain what - if anything – we look at with that”.

Arcadia collapsed into administration last week leaving 13,000 staff and hundreds of suppliers facing an uncertain future.

Immediately prior to the collapse Sir Philip rejected Mr Ashley’s offer of a £50m emergency loan to help keep Arcadia afloat.

The Sports Direct founder is also pursuing a deal for Debenhams which is due to close all of its stores by March, ending a 242-year presence on UK high streets.

Reporting its half-year results on Thursday, Frasers Group reported strong profits but gave no update on the Debenhams talks.

Frasers, which owns Sports Direct and House of Fraser, saw a surge in profits and said in-store sales had been strong following the easing of lockdown measures in England. The group also benefited from business rates relief on its 555 stores.

Pre-tax profit rose by 17.6 per cent to £106.1m in the half year to the end of October as revenues dropped 7.4 per cent drop to £1.9bn.

Frasers Group chairman David Daly called the results “pleasing” given that nearly all of its stores were closed from March until mid-June.

“In an industry sector blighted by the decline of the high street we are really proud of our performance,” he said.

“Unfortunately the Covid-19 crisis continues to be a significant issue for all of us and we are currently living through a second wave. This has resulted in more lockdowns and restrictions which are materially impacting the business.”

With stores now re-opened and online sales strong the group revised up its forecasts. It now expects earnings to rise between 20 per cent and 30 per cent over the financial year.

Mr Daly also called for reforms to business rates to support physical retailers which have been hurt by the pandemic.

“I do not wish to comment on the wider Covid-19 picture but from a general retail perspective it is impossible to ignore the lack of clarity of guidance when it finally arrives,” he said.

"Fortunately the Frasers Group is a strong business built on solid foundations.

“We can weather most of the storms faced this calendar year, however much of the UK high street, which was already suffering before Covid-19, won’t survive unless the government addresses the out-of-date business rates regime which is due to return come April 2021.”