Mike Ashley’s Frasers makes £166m play for shoe firm Accent

Frasers Group has launched a £166m takeover bid of Australian shoe company Accent while calling for the removal of its chairman over “poor performance”.

The fashion conglomerate has offered to buy all of the shares in Accent it does not already own for 65 Australian cents per share, valuing the offer at A$136m (£166m).

This offer is the latest attempt by Frasers Group, and its billionaire owner Mike Ashley, to expand its fashion empire.

The group already owns 22.9 per cent of shares in Accent and its offer value is well below the A$0.90 price it most recently paid for shares in Accent, in February this year.

Shares in Australian-listed Accent boomed on news of the offer, jumping nearly 14 per cent to 74 Australian cents, well above the offer tabled by Frasers.

Frasers said in a letter to Accent’s shareholders that it was a “great believer in the strength sold through Accent’s retail network”. The group is “highly confident” in the retailer’s long-term potential, it said.

But Ashley’s firm said it has “significant concerns” about Accent’s management, including decisions to “prioritise shareholder distributions during a period of declining earnings”.

Frasers called on chairman Lawrence Myers to step down after failing to “provide the leadership necessary to steer Accent effectively through its recent period of poor performance”.

The group added: “Frasers has made repeated attempts to engage constructively with Mr Myers and the Accent board in relation to a number of the above matters and has received no meaningful response.”

Frasers also hit out at the Australian firm’s high level of executive pay. Chief executive Daniel Agostinelli took a A$1.6m pay package last year and 82 per cent of shareholders voted against the company’s remuneration report at its last annual meeting.

Accent responded to the offer on Monday morning, saying it is reviewing the “unsolicited” bid and advising shareholders to take no action. 

The shoe and athleisure retailer was founded in 1988 and operates more than 900 stores across Australia and New Zealand. 

It reported total sales of A$1.6bn in the year to June last year, flat on the previous year, while profit after tax fell by three per cent to A$57.7m.

Frasers took a 14.65 per cent stake in Accent in August 2024, and upped this holding to 19.57 per cent in April 2025 when it struck a deal with the Australian firm to operate Sports Direct in Australia and New Zealand.

Accent opened its first Sports Direct store in Victoria, Australia in November and plans to open two more before the end of its financial year. 

Charles Allen, senior retail analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said that the offer “doesn’t look designed to succeed” and is instead intended to “provide greater flexibility in building a stake”.

Ashley’s Frasers Group, which also owns Flannels, Jack Wills and Evans Cycles, has garnered a reputation for taking large stakes in rival retailers before using this position to make larger plays.

Last week, the conglomerate launched a €2bn bid for German luxury brand Hugo Boss in an attempt to forge Frasers’s path into luxury fashion.

This bid, like Frasers’s play for Accent, was described by analysts as a low-ball offer. The approach was likely made to “seek optionality rather than full control,” stock broker Panmure Liberum said.

The €38 per share offer sent Hugo Boss’ share price soaring, to nearly €40, as Frasers – which is listed on the FTSE 250 – also saw its shares jump.

Frasers launched a takeover bid of luxury bagmaker Mulberry in 2024 but was slapped down by the firm’s owner, which reaffirmed its confidence in its turnaround plan.

Last year, Ashley failed in his bid to join the board of fast-fashion giant Boohoo, in which Frasers is the largest shareholder.

Frasers Group’s share price fell by nearly two per cent on the FTSE 250, to 777p.