The British luxury handbags and fashion brand Mulberry looked set to escape the clutches of Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group after receiving the strong backing of its controlling shareholder, Singapore’s Challice,
Frasers upped its offer to 150p a share, valuing the company at £111 million, on Friday although it has not tabled a formal bid.
But yesterday Challice, which is controlled by the Singaporean billionaire Ong Beng Seng and Christina Ong, insisted it “has no interest in either selling its Mulberry Shares to Frasers or providing Frasers with any irrevocable or other undertaking”.
Today Mulberry’s board said it was in talks with its financial advisers and would provide an update for shareholders in due course.
Under Takeover Panel “put up or shut up” rules Frasers has until 5pm on 28 October to make a commitment to make a formal takeover offer for Mulberry.
Challice owns 56.4% of Mulberry’s shares so any takeover could only happen with its support.
In its statement yesterday Challice said it “believes that it is an inopportune time for Mulberry to be sold and particularly regrets the distraction that the Possible Offer is bringing to the Company and its management team at this time.”
It added: “Challice hopes that by making its position clear, Frasers will be encouraged to announce that it does not intend to make an offer for Mulberry.”
Frasers, owner of Sports Direct and House of Fraser department stores, proposed an initial £83m bid – worth 130p a share – earlier this month but this was also rejected by Mulberry. It has a 37% holding in Mulberry and has said it is worried about loss making Mulberry being driven into administration.
But the Mulberry board said last month that it believed the recent appointment of Andrea Baldo as chief executive, along with the emergency £10.75 million share placing, “provides the company with a solid platform to execute a turnaround”.
