According to media reports, the British Frasers Group, which owns the retail chains Flannels, House of Fraser, Sports Direct and Evans Cycles, is planning to sell a retail real estate portfolio worth £320 million (around €383 million).
However, houses are not for sale in big cities, but rather in rural regions. We are talking about a total of 16 shopping centers in Wigan, Cheshunt, Aberdeen, Thurrock and Cheetham Hill near Manchester. Mike Ashley, billionaire CEO of Frasers Group, has been acquiring malls and other retail properties time and time again over the past several years. It is speculated that he now wants to part with it because investors are currently preferring rural houses as investment properties because these are less at risk than the previous top locations in view of the pandemic and increasing online trade.
At the same time, the Frasers Group has just taken over the insolvent online retailer Studio Retail for 26.8 million pounds (around 32 million euros). With 28.9 percent, the group was already the largest single shareholder in the retailer. Studio Retail Group plc was known as Findel plc until July 2019. Trading in the London Stock Exchange-listed company has been suspended since February 14, 2022 and the website is currently down.