The Times on Saturday reported that Frasers Group PLC Chief Executive Officer Mike Ashley is mulling to buy two shopping centres in Great Britain for a total of £100 million.

Frasers is a Shirebrook, England-based owner of Sports Direct, Frasers and Flannels retail chains.

The Times said Frasers is in advanced talks to buy The Mall in Luton in Bedfordshire, England, from Wells Fargo Co for £70 million.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mike-ashley-swoops-for-shopping-centres-zdkr5b635

Further, Frasers is considering to buy the Overgate centre in Dundee, Scotland from another potential seller, for about £30 million.

This would be a massive discount, as Legal & General Group PLC paid Land Securities Group PLC £125 million for Dundee’s main shopping centre destination nine years ago with Frasers’s Sports Direct and Frasers’s USC both operating stores in the centre, The Times said on Saturday.

It noted that UK shopping centres have lost nearly £8 billion in value since June 2018, quoting MSCI Real Assets.

The Times added that Frasers CEO Ashley was ‘haggling over price and it was not certain that the deals would be done.’

The newspaper suggested that the planned acquisitions were a ‘bet’ that the current slump in the retail property market is about to end.

Frasers in recent months invested in several companies. In January, it increased its stake in Manchester-based clothing and footwear retailer N Brown Group PLC to 18% from 5.0%. In October, Frasers bought a 5.1% stake in online retailer Asos PLC. Frasers has a 34% stake in German fashion retailer Hugo Boss AG.

Frasers shares were 1.5% lower at 791.00 pence each in London on Monday morning.

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