Mike Ashley's Frasers to buy about 4 million Mulberry shares

FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen on the Mulberry store in Manhattan, New York City·Reuters
Reuters
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(Reuters) -British sportswear and apparel retailer Frasers said on Friday it would buy about 4 million shares in Mulberry at 100 pence each, days after its takeover proposal was rejected by the luxury brand.

Frasers said the subscription would slightly raise its stake in Mulberry to between 36.9% and 37.3% depending on the outcome of the retail offer. It currently holds 36.8% of Mulberry, as per LSEG data.

Mulberry earlier this week rejected Frasers' 83 million pound ($109 million) takeover bid, saying its majority shareholder did not support the bid and that it undervalued the company.

Loss-making Mulberry announced plans last week to raise capital from shareholders, including a 10-million-pound proposed subscription from Challice, its Singaporean backer, owned by billionaires Christina Ong and Ong Beng Seng.

Mulberry's second-largest shareholder Frasers said that the participation in the subscription did not obligate it to make a mandatory cash offer to other Mulberry shareholders, given Challice's majority stake.

Frasers has until Oct. 28 to either make a formal offer for Mulberry or walk away.

($1 = 0.7613 pounds)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)