The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Labour peer cashes in as fashion group’s shareholde­rs lose out

- By Jamie Nimmo

THE Labour peer behind collapsed fashion firm Koovs made tens of millions of pounds by selling his other company on the same day that thousands of small Koovs shareholde­rs were wiped out.

Koovs went under on Tuesday in a pre-pack administra­tion which ended with its chairman, Lord Waheed Alli, buying the clothing company which targeted Indian shoppers.

While the move saved jobs and protected suppliers to the online retailer, small shareholde­rs in AIMlisted company Koovs – dubbed the Asos of India – will lose out.

And in a move likely to irk those shareholde­rs, Lord Alli’s TV production company Silvergate Media was snapped up on the very same day by Sony Pictures Television in a £148million deal.

Lord Alli has held hopes that Koovs – which he founded in 2012 – would replicate the success of online fashion firm Asos where he served as chairman for 12 years.

The sale of Silvergate to Sony Pictures is complex, making it difficult to establish exactly how much Lord Alli made but it is thought to be tens of millions of pounds.

Silvergate was set up in 2011 by Lord Alli and Viscount Astor, the stepfather of Samantha Cameron, after they snapped up the rights to Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series and children’s TV show The Octonauts from their former firm Chorion.

In 2016 the pair sold a 51 per cent stake to Los Angeles-based Shamrock

Capital. On Tuesday Sony Pictures bought 100 per cent of Silvergate Topco Limited, whose assets include Silvergate’s 49 per cent interest in a joint venture with Chinese giant Wanda Group, which holds the rights to Octonauts.

Sony Pictures also took a minority stake in Silvergate BP Bidco which makes the Peter Rabbit TV series. Lord Alli, who sold £15million of Asos shares to fund Koovs in its early days, will retain a majority stake in Silvergate BP Bidco Limited.

Sources said Lord Alli bought Koovs last week for around £3million – below its £12million market value when the shares were suspended. Koovs listed in 2014 at 200p per share, valuing it at

£36 million, but the stock was suspended last week at just 3p after a vital £6.5million investment from retailer Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited failed to materialis­e.

Lord Alli, 55, stepped in when the business failed to find alternativ­e sources of funding, but only after it went into administra­tion. He blames Future and is said to be willing to help fund a legal claim against it.

Lord Alli said: ‘It is always tough building a business, particular­ly in a new and developing market. I deeply regret this outcome for equity investors as a result of FLFL defaulting on its commitment­s.’

Sources close to Lord Alli said he had ploughed £20million of his own money into Koovs since founding it. He declined to comment further.

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 ??  ?? FASHION MOVE: Koovs was dubbed Asos of India
FASHION MOVE: Koovs was dubbed Asos of India
 ??  ?? DEAL-MAKING: Lord Waheed Alli
DEAL-MAKING: Lord Waheed Alli

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