Now Mike Ashley bags a £19m stake in Mulberry
MIKE Ashley raised more than a few eyebrows across the City and the fashion world as he snapped up a 12.5pc stake in luxury fashion house Mulberry.
The Sports Direct founder, who has renamed his group Frasers, had called an end to his High Street acquisition spree in November having bought House Of Fraser, Evans Cycles and Jack Wills and attempted to buy Debenhams.
But he was back at it again yesterday, buying a stake in Mulberry, which is famed for its expensive handbags that can cost more than £1,000. In a short update to the stock market, released after trading hours, Frasers said a ‘key strategic priority’ is the ‘elevation of our retail proposition and building stronger relationships with premium third-party brands’.
Taking a stake in Mulberry fits with his aim to roll out a new, upmarket empire and turn House Of Fraser into the ‘Harrods of the High Street’.
But analysts and investors alike will be keen to see if buying a stake in Mulberry is a one-off move – or if it is firing the starting gun on a new, gilded shopping splurge.
Shares in AIM-listed Mulberry closed up 2.2pc, or 5.5p, at 254.5p, valuing Ashley’s stake at £19m. Shares in FTSE 250-listed Frasers Group edged up 0.6pc, or 3p, to 474.4p.
Techradar and PC Gamer-publisher Future rebounded on the stock market (up 4.1pc, or 52p, to 1332p) after saying it expects annual results to be ‘materially ahead’ of forecasts and that it has more cash available than it anticipated.
The specialist magazine group’s unscheduled trading update came after Future’s shares were pummelled on Friday when Shadowfall Research used a 69-page diatribe to explain why it had shorted the stock and thought its shares were overvalued.
Another victim of a short-seller attack, NMC Health, also suffered on the stock market. US group Muddy Waters took aim at NMC in December, and shares in the Middle East-focused private hospital operator have been volatile since.
But NMC’s shares nosedived by 19.8pc, or 256p, to 1036p yesterday, in a move that wasn’t prompted by any announcements or other company news. The huge fall made it the day’s biggest faller on the FTSE 100.
The wider Footsie started the week on the front foot, rising 0.6pc, or 40.3 points, to 7326.31.
The mid- cap FTSE 250 index also rose, though by a smaller margin, adding 0.1pc, or 17.36 points, to finish at 21160.85.
Shares in the new combined food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway began trading, with shares closing at 7350p, after the £6bn takeover was cleared on Friday.
However, the Competition and Markets Authority still wants to probe the deal, which could even see it scuppered. Guinness and Baileys owner
Diageo rose 2.9pc, or 88p, to 3098p after brokers at Kepler Cheuvreux gave it a ‘buy’ rating, toasting the drinks company for being much less exposed to Asia and the knock-on effects of the coronavirus outbreak than many of its competitors. Mid-cap power company Drax
Group was up 3.7pc, or 10p, to 282p after it said it will ‘ assess options’ on the last two coal-burning units at its huge plant in North Yorkshire, meaning it could shut them down earlier than expected.
SIG rose 0.2pc, or 0.2p, to 92.7p, after it completed the sale of its Air Handling Division to France Air Management for £187m.
Aston Martin went into reverse after surging on Friday when it revealed it had been thrown a £500m lifeline led by Canadian Formula 1 billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
Even Citi brokers reiterating their ‘ buy’ rating on its stock couldn’t stop the James Bond car maker’s shares falling 4.5pc, or 22.6p, to 476.2p.