Mike Ashley’s cheeky 2p per share bid rejected by fashion firm

Former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley’s cheeky bid for fashion firm MySale has been rejected after another clash with ex-BHS and Topshop boss Sir Philip Green.

The Sports Direct and House of Fraser tycoon’s 2p per share offer was snubbed as ‘materially undervaluing’ the business. The board of the Australian company said Ashley’s offer was not ‘fair and reasonable’ and told shareholders to vote against it.

Ashley and Green are the AIM-listed firm’s two biggest shareholders, owning a combined 45 per cent of the business. They both bought into the flash-sale specialist when it joined the London Stock Exchange in 2014, but Ashley sold his stake five years later after a rift opened up between the pair. Green held on to his stake, despite its value plummeting, according to Thisismoney.

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Ashley then bought a 28.7% stake in the summer, making him MySale’s biggest shareholder, although an associate of Green’s said at the time that Ashley ‘does not know what he’s doing’.

Weeks after buying the stake, Ashley made an offer through his Frasers Group to buy the shares in the business he does not already own for 13.6m or 2p each. Frasers Group said it wanted to use MySale to boost growth in Australia and New Zealand and to clear out unsold stock. MySale buys excess stock from Europe and sells it online in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

But his offer has been rejected by the MySale board, who said the bid was a quarter below the company’s value the day before it was made and noted it was the lowest offer he could have made under City takeover rules.

When Green invested in the business, shares were worth 226p, meaning he would take a loss of around 80m if the takeover was approved.

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