Frasers Group in £47m JD Sports spending spree

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group continued its buying spree with the £47.5m takeover of a slew of fashion brands from rival JD Sports. 

The retail giant snapped up Pretty Green, Nicholas Deakins, Choice and 12 other brands from JD. 

Liam Gallagher, the former Oasis frontman set up Pretty Green in 2009, but it fell into administration a decade later and was bought by JD Sports. 

The deal is a major thawing of a rivalry between the brands under former bosses Ashley and Peter Cowgill, who both stepped down this year. 

Their departures marked the end of decades of tussling between the two High Street sportswear tycoons. 

Frasers Group is now run by Ashley’s son-in-law Michael Murray, while JD brought in French businessman Regis Schultz after ousting Cowgill amid a series of scandals. 

The deal came as JD also said it will take a £100m write down in its results for the year to the end of January, and shares slipped 0.7 per cent, or 0.85p, to 118.1p.