UK retail company Frasers Group has lifted its stake in Accent Group amid its on-market takeover bid for the business behind the likes of The Athlete's Foot, Hype DC and Platypus.
A substantial holder notice lodged with the ASX shows Frasers’ stake in Accent has risen from 22.9 per cent to 23.94 per cent. That is just below the 26 per cent needed for the UK group to nominate a second director to Accent’s board.
Frasers bought 6,243,750 Accent shares on-market between October 13 and October 29, all at its offer price of $0.65 per share, for a total of $4.06 million. It now holds 143,915,269 of Accent’s 601,185,674 shares on issue. Based on that share count, Frasers would need roughly another 12.4 million shares to reach the 26 per cent mark.
Most of the buying came in the final two days of the period. Frasers picked up 1,062,554 shares on October 28 and 4,825,923 on October 29, which together made up more than 94 per cent of the shares acquired.
The purchases followed Frasers declaring its 65-cent offer “best and final” this week, ruling out any increase to the price. Frasers noted that Accent shares have closed between 65 and 66 cents since early October, which has allowed it to pick up shares on-market. For much of the bid, Accent’s share price had sat above 70 cents.
Frasers first launched its takeover bid for Accent on June 15. It has since extended the offer twice, and the bid is now due to close on January 29, 2027.
Accent’s independent board committee has told shareholders to reject the offer. It argued that Frasers is seeking control without paying a control premium, and that Sports Direct ANZ has become a key driver of the company’s future value. Frasers took its dispute over Accent’s response to the Takeovers Panel, which declined to launch proceedings.
Frasers first entered Accent’s share register in August 2024, when it acquired Brett Blundy’s 14.65 per cent stake. It lifted its holding to 19.57 per cent the following year under a subscription agreement that funded the initial roll-out of Sports Direct across Australia and New Zealand. Frasers executive Dave Forsey sits on Accent’s board as the UK group’s nominee director.
The fight comes at a difficult time for Accent. Its FY26 results showed a 69.1 per cent drop in statutory earnings before interest and tax to $34 million. The fall was driven by an impairment charge, losses from closed businesses, restructuring costs and advisory costs related to the Frasers bid.
Accent’s non-executive directors, excluding Forsey and CEO Daniel Agostinelli, will voluntarily stand for re-election at the company’s AGM on November 20. Frasers has called for chair Lawrence Myers to step down.