Frasers said to be eyeing a buyout of luxury retailer Matches
Frasers Group is being linked to a potential takeover of luxury retailer Matches with talks said to be at an advanced stage.
According to Sky News, high street giant NEXT has also shown interest in buying the business, which has been owned by private equity house Apax Partners since 2017. The sale figure being touted is around £50 million which is a significantly lower sum than Apax paid for the business six years ago.
At the time of the Apax purchase no sale price was disclosed but reports placed the figure at around £600 million. The investor pumped a further £60 million into the business earlier this year.
Matches was founded as a luxury boutique in Wimbledon by Tom and Ruth Chapman in the 1980s, the pair sold the majority stake six years ago and moved into an advisory role.
Since the Chapmans' departure the business has struggled to find stable leadership and former ASOS CEO Nick Beighton was appointed in July 2022 to replace Paolo De Cesare, formerly of French retailer Printemps, who joined the company just 10 months earlier. Beighton was the fourth CEO at Matches in just three years.
Nick Beighton, Matches CEO
The recent additional funding injected into Matches was seen a sign of confidence from Apax in the leadership of Beighton and he has been credited with introducing greater operational efficiency at the business, which operates boutiques in Wimbledon, Marylebone and Mayfair, as well as a global website.
However the struggles of Matches come amid a global slowdown in the luxury market, which has also affected online marketplace Farfetch, which is scrambling to find new funding amid attempts by its founder José Neves to delist it from the New York Stock Exchange.
Browns, Brook Street
As part of his efforts to shore up Farfetch, Neves is said to be considering a sale of luxury boutique Browns, which operates in a similar space to Matches. Frasers too has been linked to a potential purchase of Browns, which has been an institution in British, and indeed global, fashion for 50 years. Farfetch acquired the business in 2015 and it was moved to a new home on London's Brook Street in 2021, having exited its historic South Molton Street home.
A move to purchase Matches and/or Browns would significantly shore up Frasers' elevation strategy. Retail tycoon Mike Ashley's group, which owns the chain of luxury super-boutiques Flannels, is set to dominate the luxury multi-brand market. It now has more than 70 Flannels stores across the country and last year acquired the premium fashion boutique business of its rival group JD Sports last year, adding Giulio, Cricket and Tessuti, among others, to its portfolio.
Flannels
In its most recent results statement, in which it revealed sales up 4.4% in the six months to 29 October to almost £2.8 billion, Frasers CEO Michael Murray issued a note of caution on the softening of the global luxury market.
Murray, however, said Fraser remained ambitious when it came to expanding its luxury, or Premium Lifestyle, arm. "Our long-term ambitions for our Premium Lifestyle business remain unchanged although it is likely that progress will remain subdued for the short to medium term in the face of a softer luxury market however, we continue to invest with confidence in our unique proposition."
As well as owning Flannels, and now the former JD retailers, Frasers holds stakes in British luxury house Mulberry and German luxury brand Hugo Boss. Its wider retail portfolio includes Sports Direct, House of Fraser, USC and Jack Wills among others.
