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Frasers snuffs out Matches just months after buying it for £52m

Evening Standard

|

March 08, 2024

FRASERS GROUP today gave up on Matches Fashion just months after spending £52 million on a bid to keep the high-end clothes retailer alive.

- Simon English

Frasers snuffs out Matches just months after buying it for £52m

The company has been put into administration after Frasers admitted Matches was making "material losses" and "consistently" missing targets set out to improve the business.

The online clothing platform employs about 700 people, but Frasers, best known for its ownership of Sports Direct, said the cash needed to keep the business going was "far in excess" of what it felt was viable.

Frasers, led by Michael Murray, bought Matches off Apax Partners in December.

Apax, which had owned the company since 2017, once valued it at more than $1 billion - a sign of how rapidly the UK retail sector has unravelled.

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