Mike Ashley’s retail empire is returning to the FTSE 100 after a six-year hiatus after the sale of a defence firm creates an opening for Frasers Group in the leading City share index.
Frasers, which owns a host of high street brands including Sports Direct and House of Fraser, is poised to rejoin the index on Tuesday, taking up the slot vacated by Meggitt, which has been bought by a US defence rival, Parker Hannifin.
Frasers, which at the time traded as Sports Direct, fell out of the blue chip index in 2016 after its share price slumped on the back of a Guardian investigation that revealed poor pay and working conditions at the company as well as poor trading in its stores.
A lot has changed in the intervening years as Ashley, who is worth about $4.7bn (£4bn), according to the Bloomberg billionaires index, sought to diversify the group from its discount clothing roots. It acquired the House of Fraser department store chain in 2018 and has been investing heavily in the luxury Flannels chain.
Although Ashley remains the business’s controlling shareholder, with an almost 70% stake, he is no longer its public face, having installed his son-in-law, Michael Murray, as chief executive earlier this year. One former worker previously described Murray as “a more acceptable version of Mike Ashley”.
Frasers has been a bright spot among UK retail stocks this year as investors expect surging inflation will force shoppers to cut back while at the same time squeezing company profit margins. This week, both Primark’s owner, Associated British Foods, and Asos reported challenging market conditions.
However, Frasers’ share price is up 20% in the past year to about 810p, with the company reporting in the summer that sales and profits had rebounded strongly from the disruption caused by the pandemic. Analysts say the company is benefiting from a cooling of competition in sports retail as well as the closure of House of Fraser’s weakest stores.
Frasers is one of the few retailers on the expansion trail and has continued its strategy of buying up distressed competitors. This year alone, it has acquired the online retailers I Saw It First, Missguided and Studio Retail.
