// Frasers Group warns Peacocks, Jaeger & Edinburgh Woollen Mill administrators they should avoid giving a preferential deal to former owners
// Peacocks & Jaeger entered administration last week, putting over 4500 jobs at risk
// EWM went into administration earlier this month alongside Ponden Home, putting 2800 jobs at risk
// The brands are owned by Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, which in turn is owned by Philip Day
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has reportedly warned administrators to Peacocks, Jaeger and Edinburgh Woollen Mill that they should avoid giving a preferential deal to former owners,
Peacocks and Jaeger – owned by Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group (EWM Group) – entered administration this week, putting over 4500 jobs at risk, while Edinburgh Woollen Mill went into administration earlier this month alongside the Ponden Home chain, putting 2800 jobs at risk.
EWM Group is owned by Dubai-based businessman Philip Day.
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Frasers Group said its attempts to discuss acquiring EWM Group’s stable of retailers had been rebuffed.
Ashley’s firm – which owns House of Fraser, Sports Direct, Jack Wills, Evans Cycles and more – said it has followed up with interest daily via email and calls asking for updates and information but has been “met with delays and absolute refusals”, Financial Times reported.
“We understand, through [administrators] FRP, that EWM’s management are flatly refusing to provide details,” Frasers Group said.
The firm said it had instructed lawyers to “remind” FRP Advisory of “their obligations to run a fair and transparent process”.
Meanwhile, FRP Advisory said it was “well aware of our duties as independent officers of the court, take them extremely seriously and are committed to running fair, transparent and open processes”.
Day indicated in the past that he had dropped plans to buy back any of the brands himself, but it was still possible that individual management teams may do so.
Frasers Group said it believed that by expressing its objections to the way the process had been dealt with, it had delayed an “inevitable” sale to acquirers.
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