Frasers Group abandons Mulberry takeover plans

Mike Ashley's business, which has a 37% stake in Mulberry, expressed concerns over Mulberry's governance and criticised its leadership team's "apparent lack of a commercial plan against a backdrop of increasing market headwinds, and critically, the financial position in which Mulberry currently finds itself".

Frasers Group said it "would not like to see another scenario where the board chooses to exclusively engage with [majority shareholder] Challice in private on significant matters, such as the emergency subscription of £10m announced on 27 September.

"Given its 37% shareholding, Frasers now hopes the Board will engage positively on a Frasers appointee to the Mulberry Board, a request that has been made several times in recent history."

Mulberry rejected Frasers Group’s £83m takeover bid on 1 October, citing its “substantial future potential value” under new leadership, and “no interest” in pursuing the deal from majority shareholder Challice.

On 11 October, Frasers Group increased its cash offer to £111m. Two days later, Challice, which owns a 56.4% stake in Mulberry, said it believed it was “an inopportune time for Mulberry to be sold”, and regretted “the distraction that the possible offer is bringing to the company and its management team at this time”.

Frasers Group's possible offer was rejected in Mulberry's update provided yesterday (22 October).