Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is in talks to sell Missguided to Chinese discount fashion giant Shein, Sky News reported at the weekend.
The move would be $80bn-valued Shein’s first purchase of a British fashion brand. One city source told Sky that the Chinese fashion giant would likely keep Missguided’s brand and other intellectual property but Ashley’s Frasers Group would retain the fashion retailer’s Manchester head office.
Frasers bought Missguided out of administration just over a year ago for £20m.
At the time, Frasers Group CEO Michael Murray said the fashion brand would benefit from “the strength and scale of FG’s platform and our operational excellence”.
Meanwhile, he said the fashion brand’s “digital-first approach to the latest trends in women’s fashion will bring additional expertise to the wider Frasers Group”.
The group followed up the acquisition by snapping up ISawItFirst.com, as well as picking up stakes in Boohoo and Asos, upping its shareholdings in both businesses earlier this month.
It now holds a 10.4% stake in Boohoo and 19.8% of Asos.
Meanwhiile, Shein has recently struck a deal with Forever 21 owner SPARC which will see the US fashion brand sold on its platform.
The fashion giant took a one third stake in SPARC, while the company also took a undisclosed minority stake in Shein.
Sky News reported that it a similar partnership could be “conceivable” between the fashion giant and Frasers Group.
