Mike Ashley‘s Frasers Group is on the acquisition trail again.
Frasers on Monday said it has made an all-cash take over offer for Accent Group. The per-share cash offer of 65 cents in Australian dollars is for the shares of Accent that Frasers doesn’t currently own, with a total value pegged at 316 million in Australian dollars or $225.1 million. The transaction is called an on-market takeover offer, meaning that Frasers will begin acquiring Accent shares on the open market beginning on June 30, 2026, with plans to conclude purchases on July 30, unless the offer is withdrawn or the offer period is extended.
According to Frasers, it already holds a 22.9 percent stake in Accent. The Bidder’s Statement, on file with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, does not include any conditions connected to the offer. Frasers disclosed on Aug. 28, 2024 that it had acquired a 14.65 percent “strategic investment” in Accent.
Thus far, Accent has not yet issued any formal statement on the target offer, although it has advised shareholders not to take any action yet. That formal statement, per Australia‘s Corporation Act, is due within 15 days from June 15, the day Frasers’ Bidder’s Statement was disclosed to shareholders. Frasers has a reputation for bottom-fishing, meaning it seeks to acquire companies at — or close to — below-market value. The current offer is below Fraser’s last share acquisition price of 90 cents in Australian dollars reportedly made in February. That might be due to Accent’s first-half report on financials for the six-month period ended Dec. 28, 2025, where it said the net profit after tax for the half year dropped 40.5 percent to 28.1 million in Australian dollars. Accent’s full year ends on the last Sunday of June each year.
Accent is a shoe retailer and wholesaler, as well as a premium distributor across Australia and New Zealand. Among its exclusive distributed brands are Skechers, Hoka, Ugg, Vans, Timberland, Merrell, Saucony and Dr. Martens. Other brands include sneaker destination site Hype, ITNO, Lacoste, Norda, Platypus Shoes, The Athlete’s Foot and others, according to Accent’s website.
When Frasers took its first stake in Accent, it said at the time that Accent had sales of 1.6 billion Australian dollars that came from nearly 900 stores and websites, “consisting of leading multi-brand sports fashion stores, vertical-owned brands, and it global exclusively distributed brands.
Separately, Frasers last year reportedly inked a long-term retail agreement with Accent to operate its Sports Direct retail chain across Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier this year, Ashley had set his sights on German sportswear brand Puma, and currently holds a 5.77 percent stake in the sports brand. Puma’s largest shareholder is Anta Sports, the Chinese sportswear giant that holds a 29.1 percent, followed by Group Artémis, the investment vehicle of the Pinault family that controls Kering Group.
The company also has long wanted to expand its international presence. In 2024, the U.K.-based Frasers Group acquired a non-controlling stake in fashion retailer Hudson Malta, which has operations in Europe and Africa. The “investment” was seen as an arrangement that gave Hudson the rights to operate some of Frasers’ brands locally, including the expansion of Sports Direct across Hudson’s markets.
