Mike Ashley has raged after allegedly being excluded from the race to buy Debenhams as restructuring firm Hilco prepares to liquidate parts of the business.

Over the past week, Ashley’s lawyers have inundated investment bank Lazard and law firm Freshfields with emails and letters expressing their outrage at the “woefully inadequate” data Frasers Group received.

The group claimed it was “almost unbelievable” to expect them to make a bid on the information provided, as originally reported in The Sunday Times.

Ashley has also sent his complaints to the Financial Conduct Authority, the Pension Protection Fund and Labour MP Rachel Reeves.

Restructuring firm Hilco had planned to send in its team as early as this week but this now may be affected by the new lockdown restrictions.

Hilco is believed to have put together a bid which would see some stores continuing to operate.

Other interested parties included The Hut Group, which initially made a bid for Debenhams’ online business but is said to be out of the running, and JD Sports, which did not table a firm offer for the full company.

Ashley claimed he was given less information than other bidders in an attempt to freeze him out of the process.

His initial £100m offer was raised to £125m on October 7 after he was told it was not competitive enough.

Frasers was then given access to a “data room” last week before Lazard sought confirmation it was willing to pay £305m and would be able to complete a purchase agreement by Wednesday.

Debenhams said: “We are conducting a fair and thorough process. Information has been provided to parties on the basis of the status of their proposals and subject to the restrictions of competition law.”

Lazard declined to comment and Freshfields did not respond to a request.

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