Boohoo reportedly faces £10 million of new legal claims as 11 more institutional investors join a High Court case over its Leicester supply chain.

The latest claims take the total compensation sought from the fashion retailer to £245 million.

The new claimants include the Bank of Korea and Stichting Shell Pensioenfonds, the pension fund for Shell employees in The Netherlands.

Investors allege that senior Boohoo executives knew the retailer used Leicester suppliers where workers faced poor conditions and received less than the minimum wage.

They claim Boohoo made untrue or misleading statements and failed to disclose material information about its supply chain. The case alleges this breaches the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The lawsuit centres on company statements published between 2017 and September 2020.

It follows a 2020 investigation that alleges some workers at Boohoo suppliers receive as little as £3.50 an hour. The revelations send the retailer’s share price down around 42 per cent and wipe approximately £1.5 billion from its market value.

An independent review commissioned by Boohoo subsequently concludes that allegations of poor working practices are “substantially true” and that problems are widespread across its Leicester supply chain.

The original case begins with 49 institutional and retail investors seeking compensation for losses linked to the share price fall.

Boohoo denies the wider allegations and is defending the High Court proceedings, according to legal analysis of the case.

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