Frasers Group has increased its stake in Boohoo Group…. again. The acquisitive retail giant has raised its voting rights from just over 28% to a little over 29%. 

That may not seem a big change but it comes after a series of small stake-builds that have propelled it to its current chunky stake and that just over a year ago saw Frasers becoming Boohoo’s biggest single shareholder.

The company, which also has sizeable stakes in ASOS, Hugo Boss, Mulberry, Revolution Beauty and more, began building up its Boohoo holding from summer 2023, beginning with a 5% stake and therefore reaching its current position in a relatively short period.

It had said its stake in Boohoo was in line with its strategy of building “supportive” positions in “attractive” companies. But in recent months it has been heavily critical of Boohoo’s management. That led to it agitating to make Frasers founder Mike Ashley Boohoo’s CEO, get other representation on Boohoo’s board and oust the group’s founder Mahmud Kamani.

It failed in these aims with a majority of other shareholders voting against various resolutions it put forward, but it’s clearly not finished with Boohoo and the bigger its stake becomes, the more influential it should be. 

Neither Boohoo nor Frasers have commented on the latest move.

As of Thursday morning, Boohoo shares traded at almost 26p each, giving the business a market value of almost £360 million. That’s well short of the level it reached in 2020 when its shares were changing hands for over £4 each at the height of the pandemic-linked e-tail boom.