Rebel boohoo shareholder Ashley again fails in his bid to oust co-founder Kamani

Mahmud Kamani

Manchester fast fashion online retailer, boohoo, has once again thwarted a bid by rebel shareholder, Mike Ashley, to oust its executive vice chairman, Mahmud Kamani from the board.

Stakeholders voted by 63.1% in favour of defeating the bid through an Extraordinary General Meeting this morning (January 21).

Votes for the removal of co-founder and executive vice chairman Kamani amounted to 36.83% of the shareholder base.

Ashley’s Frasers Group is the largest stakeholder in boohoo, with a 28.1% holding.

Following today’s vote, boohoo has called on Frasers Group, and its founder, Ashley, to “end its attempts to destabilise and disrupt the group”.

It added: “These continued distractions are not in the best interests of creating value for all shareholders.”

Tim Morris, boohoo Independent Non-Executive Chair, said: “I would like to thank our shareholders for their overwhelming support, which provides the board with a clear mandate to continue with the work of creating maximum value for all shareholders.”

Last month Derbyshire-based Frasers, which includes the Sports Direct brand, tried to unseat Kamani, and install Mike Ashley and colleague Mike Lennon on the board.

But in a December 20 General Meeting shareholders voted to reject the Frasers Group call. 

The call to appoint Ashley failed after 63.77% of votes cast went against the resolution, while Lennon’s failed with 63.76% voting against

Tim Morris added: “Today’s outcome follows the rejection in December of the previous Frasers attempt to destabilise boohoo. On both occasions 99% of investors who are not connected to Frasers backed the board’s position.”

Dan Finley, boohoo Chief Executive, said: “Once again, our shareholders have spoken.

“We want to put this disruption and distraction behind us. Our focus is on maximising value for all shareholders.”

Share in boohoo opened this morning at 29.66p per share and rose to 30.62p on news of this morning’s vote.

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at Manchester investment platform, AJ Bell, said: “Boohoo has won another battle in the bitter boardroom war with major shareholder Frasers Group.

“Shares in the online fast fashion business rose on the news that shareholders had voted overwhelmingly to keep the company’s co-founder on the board, despite Mike Ashley’s calls for him to go.

“The dispute between the two companies has been rumbling along for months and investors must wonder whether the time would have been better spent focusing on turning around the fortunes of the flagging company rather than these games of brinkmanship which haven’t amounted to a great deal of change.

“There’s no denying that boohoo has a huge amount of ground to make up at a time when Shein seems to go from strength to strength, despite concerns about its ethical standing. This is a new era of fast fashion and boohoo is being left behind.”

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