Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has again increased its stake in fashion giant N Brown, this time to 17.88 per cent.
The owner of Sports Direct and House of Frasers’ latest filing with the London Stock Exchange means the group is now N Brown’s second largest single shareholder behind Lord David Alliance, which acquired the group half a century ago in 1968.
The news comes after Frasers Group took a 4.54 per cent stake in the Manchester-headquartered group in November, having initially bought shares in the previous month.
Frasers Group has been on something of a shopping spree among North West-based fashion retailers recently, having acquired Studio Retail Group, Missguided and I Saw It First in 2022.
N Brown recently reported a fall in sales of almost eight per cent, to £249.2m, for the final 18 weeks of 2022 and warned of a “difficult trading environment.” Its JD Williams arm has also just reached a near-£50m settlement in a long-running dispute with Allianz Insurance.
