Frasers Group now owns almost 23% of ASOS

​News that Frasers Group now owns over 15% of Boohoo shares has been topped by news that its ASOS stake is now even bigger.

The acquisitive retail giant has a holding adding up to almost 23% of ASOS shares. 

The latest in a series of Boohoo increases came late last week relatively soon after the company made its first investment in the firm in June. As for ASOS, Frasers has been investing there for longer, first taking a stake of 5% in the firn last October.

Now, a year later, its holding is just shy of 22.8%, up significantly from its previous holding of 19.7%.

Officially, the company has said that it wants to be a “supportive stakeholder” in a similar way to its holdings in major names, Mulberry and Hugo Boss.

But the rapid increase in its stakes in both ASOS, and Boohoo, continues to raise questions about whether it might ultimately attempt to take over one or both of the companies. 

Frasers is known to be acquisition-hungry, and only on Tuesday, it announced a deal to buy German sports retailer SportScheck. That would be only the latest in a succession of takeover deals it has completed in recent years.

But trying to take over ASOS and/or Boohoo would be a big deal for Frasers and could come up against significant opposition from major shareholders of both businesses, as well as competition concerns. This suggests that the stake-building is more about trying to establish synergies with the Frasers portfolio.