Pure Beauty

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group offers £50m lifeline to sinking Arcadia

By Becky Bargh | Published: 30-Nov-2020

Frasers Group is said to be awaiting a response from Sir Philip Green’s retail empire

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has offered sinking retail group Arcadia a £50m loan to pull the retailer back from the brink of collapse.

Sir Philip Green’s retail empire, and the owner of fashion sweetheart Topshop, announced it was preparing to appoint administrators from Deloitte last Friday, putting 13,000 jobs at risk.

In a statement this morning, Frasers Group confirmed it had offered an “emergency” loan and was awaiting a “substantive response”, according to Sky News.

Pre-pandemic, Arcadia was struggling with weak sales and underwent a restructuring last year to dodge collapse.

Arcadia’s insolvency would trigger a rush to secure assets at knockdown prices from administrators.

This would include Arcadia’s 500-strong entourage of standalone UK stores across fashion brands Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Wallis and Miss Selfridges.

Arcadia’s demise would also leave a sour taste in the mouths of its suppliers with predicted outstanding invoices of up £250m, as reported by Insurance group Nimbla.

On Friday, Arcadia acknowledged it was working on a number of “contingency options” to secure the group’s future.

The group also cited Covid-19’s impact on trading across its businesses with sustained shutdown periods.

However, Green is not expected to snap up the offer with alacrity given his fierce rivalry with Ashley; a second strikeout for Ashely following his unsuccessful bid for struggling department store chain Debenhams earlier this month.

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