Frasers raises Boohoo stake for second time in a week

Frasers upped its stake in the online fashion retailer from 9.1% to 10.4% on Friday.

Mike Ashley’s business group, which is known to lead with an aggressive acquisition strategy, also owns a 19.3% stake in competitor Asos along with 22.2% and 11.1% stakes in electricals retailers AO and Currys respectively.

Earlier this year, Frasers chief executive Michael Murray told Retail Week: “We are building out our strategic investments, which has been quite topical. Over the past few months, we’ve been very active in the marketplace. If you take a step back and look at our ecosystem, it has been built predominantly from strategic acquisitions and investments.

“If you look at Jack Wills, we acquired that two to four years ago and it is one of our biggest own-brands now. Flannels was an acquired business of which we owned 51% and then bought 100%. We owned 11% of House of Frasers many years ago and we bought 100% of it when it went into administration. It is part of our DNA and we’ll continue to look at strategic investments that add value to our ecosystem.”