Frasers Group announced on Thursday that it won’t be proceeding with its intended voluntary offer for the shares of Norway’s XXL ASA it doesn’t already own at NOK10 (around 71p) per share.

The company’s proposed offer first hit the headlines in early December. With the British group holding 25.8% of the issued share capital, the total deal size to acquire all the shares was set to be about NOK246 million (£17.5 million).

But now the retail giant has said that with its intended offer subject to several conditions and it having reserved the right not to proceed if it became evident that any of the specified conditions wouldn’t be fulfilled, it’s walking away.

Through correspondence with the company, Frasers has been told that XXL’s other large shareholders wouldn’t accept the offer if made. That would mean Frasers was unlikely to be able to reach its goal of holding more than 50% of the shares in the struggling sports retailer.

The company’s intended offer in December came after a shareholder revolt over management’s plans to fund a turnaround.

The Norwegian retailer had struggled with a weak sports market and had seen 10 consecutive quarters of negative growth. It’s unclear what XXL ASA’s prospects are now.