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Mike Ashley’s Frasers has increased its stake in online fashion retailer asos for the third time in two weeks.
Frasers has increased its holding to 10.6%, fueling further speculation of a possible takeover offer after beginning last week with a 7.4% stake.
Frasers is currently Asos’ fourth largest shareholder having originally increased its holdings to over 5% back in October of last year.
The news comes as the embattled online retailer was the target of a £1bn pound takeover bid from Alibaba-backed Turkish retailer Trendyol in December of last year.
Earlier this week Asos announced that it had returned to profitability after its EBIT rose more than £20m year-on-year for the three months ended 31 May.
The earnings increase comes despite its revenue dropping 11% from £964m down to £859m in the same period.
The company stated that this reflected its deliberate actions on capital allocation to improve profitability showing around £200m of profit optimisation and cost savings.
Sales in the UK were also down from £432m in 2022 to £370m in 2023, a decline of 14%.
Asos now believes that it is on-track to deliver its adjusted EBIT guidance of between £40-60m in H2 FY23.
