UK-based retail conglomerate, Frasers Group, is planning to take full control of Accent Group after sharing its “significant concerns” around the footwear and apparel distributor’s strategic direction.

Founded by billionaire retail magnate Mike Ashley, Frasers Group already holds around 22.9 per cent of Accent Group.

But this is a stake that Frasers wants to more than quadruple; its offer to Accent Group is to purchase all available shares for 65 cents per share.

“Frasers is a great believer in the strength of the brands sold through Accent’s retail network and has very successful commercial relationships with most of the brand owners through its existing global business,” Christopher Wootton, director of Frasers Group, said. “Frasers is highly confident in the long‑term potential of the brands in the Australian market.”

With ongoing goals to reach 950 stores in its portfolio by 2030, Accent Group is placing its bets on the rollout of the Mike Ashley-founded Sports Direct through Australia and New Zealand.

This aggressive store rollout for Accent Group, which also includes Hoka, The Athlete’s Foot, and Lacoste, has created an unsatisfactory financial situation in the view of Wootton and Frasers.

“Frasers has significant concerns regarding Accent’s strategic direction and performance under its chairman, Lawrence Myers, and the incumbent management team,” Wootton added.

“In forming this view, Frasers has had regard to matters including Accent’s recent financial performance, approach to capital management, which has seen Accent continue to prioritise shareholder distributions during a period of declining earnings, increased borrowings and ongoing growth investment obligations, and the Accent board’s approach to executive compensation as well as the level of goodwill reported on Accent’s balance sheet as at June 29, 2025.”

More criticism from Frasers detailed its Sports Direct deal with Accent Group. In this, Frasers claimed that the store rollout plan was “revised down” from an initially agreed target of 50 stores by Accent, a number which was deferred to an “undefined time frame”.

“Frasers considers that, based on Accent’s own disclosures, Accent has not used all reasonable commercial endeavours to launch and operate the Sports Direct business in accordance with the initial roll‑out plan,” the British retailer said.

The offer period for shareholders to sell begins on June 30 and ends on July 30 at 4 pm AEST.