Newest member of Ashley’s board ‘in relationship with daughter’

THE boyfriend of Mike Ashley’s youngest daughter has been appointed to the board of Frasers Group, it has emerged, in a sign of deepening family ties with the retail giant.

David al-mudallal, the chief operating officer at Frasers who is reportedly dating Matilda Ashley, was added to its board in February.

Ms Ashley is one of Mr Ashley’s three children from his marriage to Linda Jerlmyr. Mr Ashley’s eldest daughter, Anna, is married to Michael Murray, the Frasers chief executive who took the helm at the fashion titan in 2022. He had previously been its head of elevation and headed all Frasers’ property deals.

Frasers declined to comment on the relationship, which was reported by The Sunday Times.

Mr Al-mudallal has been viewed as an ally of Mr Ashley’s within Frasers. He started at the group in 2017, joining as its head of talent before being promoted to chief operating officer in 2021. He was appointed to the board in February along with Ger Wright, the managing director of Frasers sports business, and Helen Wright, the global chief executive of luxury brand Sergio Rossi.

Mr Murray said at the time that Mr Al-mudallal and Mr Wright “made enormous contributions to the ongoing success of our strategy”. He hailed Ms Wright’s experience at “driving transformation at global luxury brands”.

News of the relationship between Mr Al-mudallal and Ms Ashley comes amid speculation over how involved Mr Ashley remains in the day-to-day running of the business. He is still a consultant to Frasers Group and has been seen as the driving force behind the recent stake-building in rival retailers including Boohoo, Asos and Currys.

However, speaking to The Telegraph last year, Mr Murray insisted he was the one making decisions, despite his father-in-law remaining as Frasers’ largest shareholder. Mr Ashley owns around 73pc of the stock.

Mr Murray said: “Mike is not on the board. I’m on the board with non-executive directors and we make the decisions.

You’ve got to be on the board to make the final decision.” He said he was steering the stake-building, although has declined to comment on what the strategy was. Frasers has also taken a significant stake in model railway company Hornby and electronics store AO World.

Mr Murray said last October: “All I can do is talk about how it looks very obvious afterwards. [Luxury department store] Flannels was an acquisition, and now it seems normal that Flannels is a part of Frasers Group. And Game, you think: why would you buy 30pc of Game? Afterwards, it’s all very obvious.”

Scrutiny over decision-making within the company came to the fore last month when Frasers Group put designer brand Matches Fashion into administration less than three months after buying the luxury online retailer in a £52m deal.

Mr Murray had said financial pressures across the sector were creating more opportunities. However, last month, Frasers said it was having to put Matches Fashion into administration amid unsustainable losses.