Frasers acquires minority stake in N Brown

Frasers Group has revealed it has acquired a 4.54% stake in fashion retailer N Brown, according to the latest holding documents filed by the company.

The pureplay retailer’s brands include Jacamo, Simply Be and JD Williams and was founded in 1859 in Manchester – where its headquarters remain to this day.

The news marks the latest in a series of moves by Frasers which was founded by retail tycoon Mike Ashley and is now run by his son-in-law Michael Murray.

Last month, the group made a mandatory cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Australian online fashion discounter MySale, for shares which are not already owned by Frasers or any persons acting in concert with it, at a price of 2p per MySale share.

Previously, Frasers had acquired 270,666,650 MySale shares at 2p per share on 29 June 2022, becoming MySale’s largest shareholder with a 29% stake in the business.

Meanwhile, N Brown revealed last week it has seen its pre-tax profits plunge 74.6% to £7.2m in the first half of the year, as weakened consumer confidence led to a “more challenging” online retail market and subdued half-year revenues.

Revenues dipped by 4.6% to £331.5m in the period, while the online retail market was down by around 7% overall.

At the time, N Brown CEO Steve Johnson said: “In a difficult period of weakening consumer confidence, we’ve balanced our objectives between disciplined trading – with a focus on upholding margin – and delivering on our long-term strategy to transform the business.

“Our teams have worked relentlessly to launch Simply Be’s new website, and early indicators give us confidence in the wider benefits for all our customers when we roll this out more widely across our other strategic brands.”