Boohoo and Debenhams owner raises £35m, risking Mike Ashley clash
The owner of Boohoo and Debenhams is raising £35m from shareholders in a move that could open a fresh conflict with Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley.The company, which also owns Oasis, Warehouse, Pretty Little Thing and Karen Millen, said on Tuesday that the new cash would help reduce debts and fund its turnaround plans.These involve slashing costs, selling off a distribution centre and operating Debenhams as an online marketplace for other brands.The fund raise, backed by the Boohoo founder, Mahmud Kamani, comes less than 18 months after the group raised £39m from shareholders as it battles to revive sales amid heavy competition from rivals such as Shein and Vinted.Debenhams, which changed its name from Boohoo last year, posted a share price fall of almost 9% on Tuesday morning.
The independent retail analyst Nick Bubb said: “Investors may be dismayed at the group’s financial situation.”Analysts at Peel Hunt said Debenhams was “bumping up against covenants” on a three-year £175m debt facility.Debenhams said all its brands were now trading profitably and it was on track to deliver underlying group profits of £50m in the year to the end of February, in line with previous guidance.It said: “The turnaround plan is going apace.“The fourth quarter has continued to see material improvements in the group’s [sales] trend, alongside the continued removal of significant cost from the business as it is simplified.
”It said institutional shareholders in Debenhams had already indicated support for £24m of the fund raising, which at 20p a share is at an 11% discount to Monday’s closing price.However, it is not clear if Ashley’s Frasers Group, Debenhams’ biggest shareholder with a near 30% stake, will back the cash call.Frasers has previously criticised the group’s plans to sell off assets, while Ashley sought to become the chief executive of Boohoo but was blocked by the company from putting that proposal to shareholders in 2024.A few months later Boohoo shareholders blocked Ashley and an associate from joining its board.Last month, Debenhams said it had ditched plans to sell Pretty Little Thing but it indicated on Tuesday that it was still considering “non-core asset disposals at best possible value” and licensing of brands as part of its efforts to reduce debts.
“The board has multiple strategies to de-leverage the group further,” it said in a statement,Ashley lost out to Boohoo when it bought the Debenhams brand in 2021 after the department store’s collapse,In March last year, Frasers voted to block formalisation of the group’s name change from Boohoo to Debenhams,
England’s slow-burn T20 World Cup heads for Super 8s with campaign yet to ignite
If there was one thing the players of England and Italy agreed on at the end of a hugely entertaining and, from an English perspective, frequently concerning match at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, it was that the situation favoured their opponents.England felt the Italians, unburdened by expectation, enjoyed a free hit. “It’s not an easy game, because all the pressure is on us,” said Jamie Overton. “It’s not easy for them either, but they can go and show what they can do.”Meanwhile Italy felt the English, with their greater tournament experience, always held the upper hand
Russian woman carried Ukraine team placard at Winter Olympics opening ceremony
The woman who carried the Ukrainian team placard at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony was a Russian living in Milan, who chose to perform a small act of resistance to show her support for Ukraine.Anastasia Kucherova, an architect who has been living in Milan for 14 years, was unrecognisable in a hooded silver puffer coat, with her eyes also covered with dark glasses.However she has since revealed that she was the volunteer who led the five Ukrainian athletes competing in Milan into San Siro to her 879 Instagram followers and in an interview with the Associated Press.“When you walk by the side of these people you realise they have every human right to feel hatred towards any Russian,’’ she told the AP. “Still, I think it’s important to do even a small action to show them that maybe not all the people are thinking the same way
Winter Olympics briefing: Swiss stranglehold on skiing shows no sign of loosening
Switzerland’s men have dominated the ski slopes of Milano Cortina. Not since the super-G and the team combined were added to the Olympic programme in 1988 has one country won four of the five events – a feat achieved with Loïc Meillard’s victory in the slalom on Monday. Only Brazil managed to stop them in these Games.Franjo von Allmen has been their undisputed star, heading home with three golds in his hand luggage. After winning the downhill on the opening weekend, he was given a helping hand by Tanguy Nef’s scintillating slalom run as they won the team combined
How did Australia – better known for its beaches than snow – become a consistent Winter Olympics performer? | Kieran Pender
In 1936, Kenneth Kennedy made history as Australia’s first Winter Olympian. It was a lonely enterprise; not only was Kennedy the nation’s sole representative at the Games in Germany, but the speed skater was entirely unsupported, with no staff or Australian Olympic officials in attendance.From those inauspicious beginnings, almost six decades would pass before Australia won its first Winter Olympic medal; bronze in the men’s 5000m speed skating relay (Steven Bradbury – later to become Australia’s most famous Winter Olympian – was a member of the team). But from famine, now a hearty Winter Olympics meal awaits Australians every four years – if perhaps not yet a medal feast.Australia has won medals at every Winter Games since that bronze in 1994
Winter Olympics 2026: Elana Meyers Taylor wins monobob gold for USA; Canada’s Oldham lands freeski big air crown – as it happened
That’s it from us for today. Lots happening tomorrow though: the qualifiers begin for the aerials, which is always spectacular, as will be the snowboard slopestyle final. There are medals in biathlon and in Nordic combined, for the fans of serrated skis. There’ll be team pursuit medals in the speed skating, the men’s big air final for skis, the short program for the women’s single figure skating, the two-man bobsleigh medals, and more curling than you can slide a rock at. See you there
Muir fourth again after agonising tumble as Oldham wins big air gold for Canada
This time, Kirsty Muir must surely have believed that a Winter Olympic medal was in her grasp. But as a thrilling big air competition reached its denouement, an Italian with no anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee came down a 180‑feet ramp and drove a stake through the Briton’s heart.It all looked so promising when the 21-year-old from Aberdeen landed a stunning left double 1620, with four and a half rotations, to move into the medal positions after two of the three rounds. However, with just four jumps of the competition remaining, Flora Tabanelli, who tore her ACL in November, did the same trick as Muir but only better to score 94.25 points to steal the bronze medal
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