Boohoo stirs tension, reportedly excludes Frasers from investor meeting

Boohoo’s new chief executive officer, Dan Finley, is believed to be planning a meeting with the company’s biggest shareholders over the next week. However, one of the most notable is believed to be missing from the round up.

After weeks of escalating back and forth scrutiny, it appears Frasers Group is now being shunned from Boohoo’s invite list, according to The Times, which said that no one from the Sports Direct owner is scheduled to attend Finley’s meeting.

The report comes after weeks of public feuding between Boohoo and Frasers, which have clashed on disagreements over leadership and operations, resulting in a series of open letters from both parties criticising the other.

Tensions between the duo began arising when Boohoo revealed that it was to carry out a review of its structure, confirming past speculation that it was mulling a possible separation of its business after its former CEO John Lyttle departed.

Frasers proposed that its own owner, Mike Ashley, should step in to the helm, citing “abysmal trading performance and share price collapse” among its concerns regarding the alleged “leadership crisis” it claimed to have witnessed at the fast fashion firm.

Boohoo ultimately denied Ashley’s bid for the top role and instead appointed Finley, leading Frasers to double down on its public critique, dubbing the company “desperate”.

Boohoo, in turn, slammed Frasers for its focus on its so-called “own commercial self-interest”, stating that the group’s push for a management takeover was “wholly inappropriate” considering its relations with direct Boohoo competitors.

In order to be granted board representation, Boohoo has outlined a number of requirements for Frasers to follow, including a distinct separation of interests with the selected director and confirmation that no offer for Boohoo or any of its subsidiaries was to come.