RE: "The A Team"26 Oct 2024 09:11
A company whose value briefly surpassed Marks & Spencer’s during lockdown as consumers worked themselves into an online shopping frenzy, is now worth a fraction of what it was during those heady days after stumbling from one setback to another.
Boohoo’s shares have slumped 93pc since their mid-2020 peak and there seems little prospect – if any – of them bouncing back any time soon. On the contrary, without some drastic changes, the likelihood is that the share price has even further to fall.
A sustained fall in sales, which left Boohoo nursing £160m of losses at the end of last year, will be difficult to reverse in the face of intensifying competition, particularly from Chinese upstarts Shein and Temu.
Further to fall?
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Boohoo share price
View as data table, Further to fall?
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Growth at Shein has been so spectacular that it is now generating more sales in Britain than Boohoo, and yet the impression among some City figures is that Kamani and his team are somewhat dismissive of the threat that it poses.
Still, it’s not clear that Frasers has the answers either. A proposal to accelerate the departure of outgoing chief executive John Lyttle and replace him with Ashley is almost certain to be fiercely resisted by the Kamani family.
Though their combined shareholding is less than half that of Frasers – 19pc compared to 26pc – they continue to wield huge influence and are not to be underestimated.
In the end, it may be that Frasers can count on the backing of other major Boohoo investors such as Schroders with 7pc, and which also happens to be one of Frasers’ most loyal acolytes, and Camelot Capital Partners with 5pc, enabling it to prise Boohoo from the grip of the Kamanis.
But that surely isn’t possible without a fierce and protracted fight that risks inflicting further damage to the company’s prospects.
Even then, it is far from guaranteed that Ashley can turn it around.
“There is no stronger candidate ... who has the experience and abilities of Mr. Ashley,” Frasers claims.
Perhaps, but that assumes Boohoo’s troubles are temporary when in fact it increasingly looks as though the fast fashion market is entering a period of seismic structural change unleashed by more nimble Chinese rivals.
Ultimately, a break-up may be inevitable with Frasers at the front of a queue of buyers but if Ashley ends up in the chief executive’s chair at Boohoo, non-executive directors such as former Matalan boss Alistair McGeorge have their work cut out navigating that little governance minefield.
Frasers shareholders may also want to consider Ashley’s mixed track record when it comes to pursuing the competition. Indeed, on the same day that Frasers was going public with it
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