£ 70 MILLION DIVORCE OF A FASHION SUPERSTAR
The founder of online store Asos hands over a third of his fortune to the wife he left for his secretary
LIKE ALL the best ideas it was a simple one. An internet business where people could buy the clothes and accessories they had seen celebrities wearing, hence the name: As Seen On Screen.
Soon Asos branched out and started to sell a wider selection of clothing, including its own label, and is now the world’s leading online fashion destination for 20- somethings.
As high- profile celebrities themselves, including Taylor Swift, Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama, began wearing Asos fashions, the firm’s founders became very rich indeed. In fact in 2013 co- founder Nick Robertson, 48, found himself the 298th richest man in the UK.
But his £ 220million fortune has now been dismantled after he fell in love with his former PA Charlotte Balin, 15 years his junior, having allegedly abandoned loyal wife Janine and the mother of his children who had stood by him while he grew the business.
When it was announced in March 2014 that the couple had parted, friends said they were living apart on civilised terms and trying to make their marriage work. But it then emerged that Mr Robertson was renting a house with his new girlfriend close to his family home in Wimbledon, south- west London.
A bitterly hurt Janine, 43, refused to accept a £ 30million pay- off following their divorce. She wanted her share of the marital fortunes to reflect more accurately her contribution to her husband’s success during their nine- year marriage – and asked for nearly £ 110million.
This week a High Court judge awarded her £ 70million, a third of his fortune and the midway point between the figure Nick wanted to offer and the amount Janine was demanding. Mr Justice Holman rebuked the husband while curbing the excesses of the wife but in so doing reiterated the point that marriage is a partnership of equals. While he acknowledged that Mr Robertson was the “moneymaker” he said Mrs Robertson had been “an excellent homemaker and an excellent mother” to the couple’s two daughters, aged seven and eight.
Asos turned over more than £ 1billion last year and was responsible for 1.1 per cent of all men’s and women’s clothing sold in the UK. Little wonder that Robertson, who stepped down as Asos chief executive in September, has won several entrepreneur of the year awards and was once described as one of the “greatest entrepreneurs” of the century for selling clothes from more than 850 brands to nearly 10 million customers with the help of more than 3,000 staff.
In 2011 he was awarded an OBE for services to the fashion industry yet just 25 years earlier Robertson had gained two Ds and an F in his A- levels.
SO JUST how did he end up with a property portfolio worth nearly £ 60 million, with homes in London, Oxfordshire and France, plus cars – including a Mercedes, Bentley and Ferrari – and boats worth about £ 2million?
Far from being a rags-to- riches story his is a riches-to-rag- trade tale. Robertson is the great- grandson of Victorian retailer Austin Reed, who founded the eponymous upmarket chain of 70 stores including the famous flagship store on Regent Street.
He attended Canford School in Wimborne, Dorset, which costs £ 29,600 a year and is the alma mater of Stephen Ward, the osteopath involved in the Profumo Affair, film- maker Derek Jarman and numerous MPs and peers.
After leaving school Robertson joined advertising agency Young & Rubicam. In 1996 he set up Entertainment Marketing with Quentin Griffiths and four years later they were ready to launch Asos. They certainly had influence: their £ 2.4million startup costs were mainly borrowed from friends and family.
In 2002 he met Janine, whom he married two years later. At the time of her marriage she had “negligible means” – according to the judge – but supported her husband while he worked the long hours to transform his idea into a crowd- pleaser. Asked in 2009 if he was a workaholic he said: “I don’t think so. I work reasonable hours – I have a sixmonth- old baby and a 16- monthold so I have family time.”
When asked what he spent his money on he joked about his wife’s passion for shopping: “I like skiing, football and I’m probably Asos’s fourth- biggest customer after my wife. I have quite a simple existence really.”
Five years later this harmonious home- life evaporated. Robertson moved out of his £ 8.3million six- bedroom family home and was pictured hand- in- hand with Charlotte several months later.
And it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the company either. In the year of his separation Asos had three profit warnings wiping millions off their trading value and suffered a suspected arson attack at their warehouse.
It wasn’t the first fire. In 2005 the Buncefield explosion in Hertfordshire destroyed all the company’s stock just before Christmas. Robertson is said to have sat at the computer relentlessly pushing the “refund” button himself. One feels there is an analogy to be drawn about his present financial relationship with his former wife.