Frasers Group confirms its interest in Arcadia brands

Frasers Group – which this morning revealed a 17.6% rise in interim profits – has confirmed its interest in acquiring all or some Arcadia brands, though its finance chief said the at the retail group does "tend to look at almost everything on on the high street".

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Frasers Group finance chief Chris Wootton said it was too early to comment on exactly which parts of Sir Philip Green's collapsed group, it might be prepared to bid for. "[...] the process has only just started so there's a long way to go as to ascertain what - if anything - we look at with [Arcadia]," Wootton said.

Sir Philip Green's group, which includes brands such as Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, collapsed into administration at that start of last week. Frasers Group had offered Arcadia a secured £50m loan to stave off administration but the offer was declined.

A number of suitors are expected to be circling the brands with Topshop seen as the prize asset that could attract bids from the likes of online groups Boohoo and ASOS, though that would likely mean the end for its stores.

Others said to be potential bidders for all or part of the business include Next and Marks & Spencer. Frasers Group expressed interest early on but is at present locked in negotiations to rescue the Debenhams department store chain, which is currently in the midst of a liquidation process.

Debenhams was already in administration but appointed liquidators following the collapse of Arcadia, which is its largest concessionaire. The fall of Arcadia prompted JD Sports to pull out of talks to buy Debenhams. Frasers Group, which had previously been interest but felt its move to buy the business had been frustrated by Debenhams' advisers, then re-entered talks.

Debenhams currently has 124 stores but it seems highly unlikely Frasers would take them all. Speaking to Sky News earlier to day, Wootton said the talks with Debenhams were centred around whether Frasers would take "some or none" of the business.

This morning Frasers Group posted a rise in pre-tax profit of 17.6% to £106.1m n the half year to the end of October, amid a 7.4% drop in revenue to £1.9bn as the group was hit by COVID-19-related store closures.

Read our Timeline of Frasers Group chief Mike Ashley's six-year campaign to take control of Debenhams here.