Frasers Group Buys Minority Stake in Struggling Under Armour, Details


After nabbing a minority stake in Puma earlier this year, Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is investing in another troubled sportswear company.

According to a recent regulatory filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, Frasers Group has acquired an 8.78 percent stake in Under Armour, or about 16.6 million shares of Class A common stock.

The move still leaves Under Armour founder and chief executive officer Kevin Plank as the majority shareholder of the business, with about a 65 percent stake in the company.

FN has reached out to Under Armour for comment.

Ashley’s the owner of U.K. retailer Sports Direct, which he founded in 1982. He later acquired House of Fraser in August 2018 after it entered administration, the U.K. equivalent of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding in the U.S. Ashley subsequently renamed the combined entity Frasers Group.

Frasers and Ashley have a reputation for acquiring shares in companies experiencing difficulties in their business. This case could be applied to Under Armour. Shares for the Baltimore-based athletic company are currently down 2 percent as of Monday morning at $4.62. This is down from the company’s all-time high stock price of $45.41 on April 21, 2016.

In its most recent first quarter 2027 earnings report issued in August, Under Armour saw net revenue decrease 3 percent to $1.10 billion, down from $1.13 billion the same time last year.

By region, North America revenue declined 9 percent to $610 million, while international revenue increased 5 percent to $490 million. Wholesale revenue decreased 2 percent to $638 million and direct-to-consumer revenue decreased 6 percent to $437 million. By category, apparel revenue decreased 2 percent to $734 million, footwear revenue declined 8 percent to $245 million, and accessories revenue decreased 4 percent to $96 million.

As for Frasers Group, its most recent sportswear deal saw the company acquire a 5.77 percent stake in Puma earlier this year. That stake, under Ashley’s name, makes the billionaire investor the German sportswear company’s second largest stakeholder after Anta Sports, which bought the 29 percent stake owned by Artemis for 1.5 billion euros in January.

More recently, Frasers Group acquired the loss-making Harvey Nichols out of administration in August, gaining control of the 193-year-old luxury department store chain from Hong Kong businessman Dickson Poon.

In July, Ashley’s Frasers Group said in a regulatory filing that it had amassed put options on 15 million shares of Burberry Group, giving it a 4.2 percent stake in the company.



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