Frasers eyes possible acquisition of ISAWITFIRST

Frasers Group is reported to be eyeing fast fashion etailer ISAWITFIRST with a possible acquisition deal to be completed in the coming weeks.

According to The Telegraph, sources have confirmed that talks are underway between the listed retail group and the Manchester-based business, which was established by one of the co-founders of Boohoo, Jalal Kamani. However it is not certain that a deal will go through at this stage.

Jalal Kamani is the brother of Boohoo Group chairman and co-founder Mahmud Kamani. He was formerly trading director at Boohoo but left in 2015. In 2018 Jamal Kamani gifted his 30 million Boohoo shares to his adult children. He established ISAWITFIRST in 2017 and the business currently has sales of around £75m.

Should Frasers seal the deal, it would be its second acquisition in the fast fashion space in as many months. At the start of June it paid £20 million to acquire Missguided, which had collapsed into administration.

Prior to its collapse, Missguided had been a strong rival of Boohoo and its PrettyLittleThing brand, which was founded by Mahmud Kamani's son Umar and which is now wholly owned by the Boohoo Group. Boohoo Group, which is highly acquisitive, was reported to have been interested in purchasing Missguided in a pre-pack deal before its collapse and was said to be in exclusive talks with administrators at one stage.

However, the business ultimately ended up in Frasers' hands, who also reinstated Missguided founder Nitin Passi at the head of the business as CEO.

Frasers and Boohoo Group had also gone head to head in the race to acquire department store chain Debenhams. Frasers boss Mike Ashley had built up a stake of almost 30% in Debenhams before its eventual collapse but Boohoo Group secured the deal to buy the business from liquidators in January 2021 and relaunched its as an online only entity. It later opened one Debenhams beauty store in Manchester to satisfy wholesale partnerships with major beauty brands, which often require retailers to have a bricks & mortar presence.

Frasers and Boohoo Group are the most highly acquisitive British fashion retail groups. Frasers owns, among others Sports Direct, House of Fraser, Flannels, USC and Jack Wills, while Boohoo Group now counts Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, Miss Pap, Oasis, Warehouse, Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Debenhams among its brands.