{"id":222379,"date":"2022-12-20T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?p=222379"},"modified":"2022-12-20T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T15:52:11","slug":"in-review-2022-the-major-ma-deals-in-british-fashion-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/in-review-2022-the-major-ma-deals-in-british-fashion-retail\/","title":{"rendered":"In Review 2022: the major M&A deals in British fashion retail"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fashion retail has been tested beyond reasonable limits in 2023. <\/strong>A cost of living crisis, supply chain strife, rising costs, war, strikes and extreme weather have wreaked havoc on a market that was still reeling from a global pandemic that forced lengthy store closures and fundamentally changed the way people lived and worked (and therefore the way they shopped and dressed).<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A number of big names disappeared from our high street altogether during the pandemic but the fall-out provided plenty of opportunity for the more financially and operationally stable businesses in the market. After a flurry of M&A activity in 2021, 2022 proved equally as interesting and already the seeds have been sown for more high profile deals in 2023.<\/p>\n Below we round up for some of the most significant moves of the past 12 months (most of them involved Frasers Group!) and take a look ahead at what we might expect in the coming year.<\/p>\n Frasers Group could occupy an entire In Review feature of its own given how active it has been not only on the M&A front, but also with store openings.<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, though, it kicked off the year with a divestment<\/span><\/a>, selling a portfolio of 15 retail parks, including Berryden Retail Park in Aberdeen, and properties in Wigan, Cheshunt, Thurrock and Cheetham Hill, near Manchester, for \u00a3320m, giving it a cache of cash to spend on other businesses.<\/p>\n In February it acquired Studio<\/span> Retail<\/span><\/a> for \u00a31 (it wasn\u2019t its only \u00a31 acquisition of the year) and then promptly set about building up its strategic stake<\/a><\/span> in German luxury fashion business Hugo Boss. It has built on its stake all year and now holds 35%<\/a><\/span> of its issued share capital.<\/p>\nFrasers Group fashion\u2019s most active acquisitor<\/strong><\/h4>\n