Mark Kleinman: Handbags (and more) at dawn for activist Ashley

Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and is the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column. This week he tackles Mike Ashley’s newfound penchant for activist investing, Homebase’s turnaround and and Burberry’s flip-flopping Paul Singer, Bill Ackman..

.and Mike Ashley? On the list of prominent activist investors, the name of Britain’s most belligerent retail tycoon might appear something of an anomaly. His current wave of corporate activity in the London market suggests otherwise.



Mulberry, the luxury handbag maker, feels like something of an appetiser, with Ashley’s Frasers Group having tabled, then walked away from, a series of offers for the company. In reality, given the entrenched position of Ong Beng Seng, the Singaporean who controls a majority stake in Mulberry, a bid was always unlikely to succeed. So onto the main course: Boohoo, the struggling online fashion retailer which owns Debenhams, Burton and PrettyLittleThing and which announced a cash call to raise nearly £40m last week.

Frasers has demanded in recent weeks that Ashley be installed as Boohoo’s chief executive; not only was this request rejected, but Dan Finley, a former JD Sports Fashion and Debenhams executive, was appointed instead. For any keen Ashley-watchers, that was the executive search equivalent of a double-red rag to a bull. He now wants Boohoo, which announced a strategic review last month, to refrain from selling assets, arguing that the company has complet.