Mike Ashley's Frasers Group exits Debenhams race

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is reportedly out of the race to acquire Debenhams after failing to match a 300 million pound price tag demanded by the UK department stores group’s advisers.

According to The Times, those advisers must now choose whether they want to liquidate the 232-year-old business, break it up and sell it to different buyers, or sell it back to the group of hedge funds that own its debts.

It comes after Debenhams fell into ‘light touch’ administration back in April - a process being handled by restructuring firm FRP Advisory.

Frasers Group’s chief financial officer Chris Wootton has written to the chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee committee, saying that the price tag for Debenhams was “impossible” for all but insiders to reach, The Times reports.

Wootton added that this means Debenhams will be bought by its present owners or restructuring specialist Hilco, which would “look to turn the remnants of Debenhams into cash before leaving a bare carcass stripped to the bone”.

Photo credit: Debenhams