House of Fraser rescued in £90m deal

Sportswear chain Sports Direct has snapped up House of Fraser in a £90m rescue deal that includes all of its stores.

In a statement to the stock exchange, Sports Direct confirmed it had bought the retailer for £90m in cash, shortly after it fell into administration this morning.

“The group has acquired all of the UK stores of House of Fraser, the House of Fraser brand and all of the stock in the business,” it said.

More details of what this means for the group’s 17,000 staff across its 59 stores are expected to follow.

In Yorkshire House of Fraser employs 333 people across six stores in Huddersfield, Doncaster, Grimsby, Hull, Leeds and Skipton.

The news follows this morning’s announcement that the stricken department store chain had appointed EY as administrators after talks with potential investors failed to result in a rescue.

A statement from EY said: “Shortly after our appointment, the administrators are pleased to confirm that they completed a sale of substantially all of the group’s business and assets to the Sports Direct group.”

Alan Hudson, joint administrator, said: “We have worked very closely with management, its advisors and creditors in recent weeks and are pleased that we have been able to successfully conclude a sale of the business in short timescales which preserves as many of the jobs of House of Frasers employees as possible.

“It was a challenging transaction to achieve in such a short period of time which will ensure continuity of the business and preserve the goodwill. We hope that this will give the business the stable financial platform that it requires to flourish in the current retail environment.”