Mike Ashley calls for Mulberry board seat after takeover bid rejected
- Frasers Group ‘does not intend’ to make a firm offer for handbag maker
Mike Ashley demanded his company be given a seat on the Mulberry board even as he admitted defeat in his attempt to buy the company.
A day after a second takeover proposal worth £111m was rejected, his Frasers Group said it ‘does not intend’ to make a firm offer for the troubled handbag maker.
It marked a victory for the Singapore-based billionaire Ong family who were opposed to a deal. The family’s Challice group owns a 56pc stake in Mulberry and Frasers has 37pc.
Demand: Frasers says it is ‘increasingly concerned over the governance of Mulberry’
Frasers said it was ‘a disappointing outcome’ and added that it remains ‘a long-term supporter of the well-loved British brand’.
But Frasers attacked ‘the absence of proper engagement’ regarding its two offers and repeated its request for a seat on the Mulberry board.
‘Frasers has become increasingly concerned over the governance of Mulberry, the apparent lack of a commercial plan against a backdrop of increasing market headwinds and, critically, the financial position in which Mulberry currently finds itself,’ it said.
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