Mike Ashley's House of Fraser takes cheeky swipe at Debenhams with Sale promo

Following his failed attempt to take control at Debenhams last week, Mike Ashley has taken a cheeky swipe at the department store via a House of Fraser sales promo.

House of Fraser, which Ashley acquired last August, in a pre-pack administration deal is holding a promotion until midnight tonight offering a 20% discount off a wide selection of products if the shopper uses promo code "Debs20" at checkout.

Despite several months of trying to seize control of Debenhams (or Debs as it is known in the trade) via a series of methods such as loan and refinance offers (which escalated in value), an offer to buy its Danish business and a low-ball cash bid, Ashley was repeatedly rebuffed and the business was placed into administration last week to be bought immediately by a consortium made up of its lenders.

The consortium has given the go-ahead for a restructure of the business and is said to be planning to exit CEO Sergio Bucher and replace him with chairman Terry Duddy.

Ashley is said be furious that he lost out and has lashed out suggesting Debenhams' advisers should be forced to take lie-detector tests and some of them sent to prison.

Despite retail veteran Lord Rose suggesting that Ashley's failure to land Debenhams was a lucky escape, the Sports Direct chief clearly thinks otherwise and this cheeky promo swipe could be just the first in a number of ways the tycoon will make his displeasure known.