Frasers Group acquires JD Sports’ premium fashion brands

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has announced the acquisition of a number of premium fashion brands that JD Sports Fashion has stakes in.

The company has snapped up 15 of the group’s retailers via shares held by JD, with all of the indebtedness to be transferred to subsidiaries of Frasers Group.

Brands included in the deal are Tessuti, Base Childrenswear, Missy Empire, Choice, Clothingsites, Cricket, Giulio, Kids Cavern, Nicholas Deakins, Pretty Green, Prevu Studio, Rascal Clothing, Scotts, Watch Shop and Topgrade Sportswear.

In a regulatory filing, Frasers said the amount payable for the acquisition of the shares and indebtedness amounts to 47.5 million pounds, which will be funded by the group’s existing cash resources.

The completion of the acquisition of several of the remaining businesses, such as Tessuti and Rascal Clothing, is expected to take place in early 2023.

It comes as Frasers Group continues to expand its portfolio towards a more premium positioning, a strategy the company has increasingly focused on since the appointment of its new CEO Michael Murray.

The group has carried out a slew of acquisitions in the past year, including takeovers of Missguided, Studio Retail and I Saw It First, as well as a series of stake increases in the likes of Hugo Boss and N Brown.

JD Sports to focus on sports portfolio

Its newest acquisition follows the implementation of a strategic review by JD Sports Group’s chief executive officer, Régis Schultz, who initially said he was carrying out the process in a bid to focus more fully on opportunities across the rest of the group.

In a release, Schultz said: “JD is rightly recognised for its laser focus on the customer and we are convinced that the most significant opportunities lie in the continued international development of the group’s global sports fashion businesses.

“We are pleased to have agreed the sale of these attractive, but non-core, brands and I would like to express my sincere thanks to all colleagues at the businesses which form part of the transaction for their hard work and contribution to the group over the year.”

JD is now set to put all of its attention on the international and digital expansion of its core premium sports fashion labels, which include JD Sports itself, as well as Size?, Foot Patrol and Shoe Palace, among others.

According to the group, the divestment will result in a non-cash exceptional charge in its annual accounts for the period to 28 January 2023 of approximately 100 million pounds.