Frasers Group plc is weighing a cut-price bid for listed cosmetics brand Revolution Beauty.
The beauty business announced a formal sale process on 21st May 2025 – handled by investment bank Panmure Liberum – as it seeks additional capital to invest in the business.
Revolution is speaking to a number of potential suitors, which it says are conducting due diligence.
Among them, it has now been confirmed, is Frasers. This morning Mike Ashley’s retail group said any offer, if forthcoming, would be an all-cash deal.
Revolution has seen its share price slump 70% in the past year. Before confirmation of the talks with Frasers was confirmed by the firm yesterday, its shares were trading at 7.20p.
Yesterday it rose as high as 8.86p before settling at just below 8p; however in early trading on Tuesday, following Frasers’ own confirmation, it is back up to 8.8p (as of 8.30am).
Shares in Revolution – whose market capitalisation now sits at £28m – were worth 170p at the time of its IPO in 2021, which gave it a market cap of £500m.
Frasers owns retail brands including House of Fraser, Sports Direct and Evans Cycles, as well as stakes in THG, ASOS, Hugo Boss, Currys and – most controversially – Boohoo, which is led by Ashley’s arch-nemesis Mahmud Kamani.
Boohoo, now known as Debenhams Group, owns a 27.09% stake in Revolution.
Revolution, which has appointed Debenhams Group board member Iain McDonald as chairman to oversee the sales process, reported a 26% drop in sales to £141.6m in its last annual accounts.
The company expects to report FY25 underlying adjusted EBITDA of between £6-6.5m.
In recent days Revolution CEO Lauren Brindley – who took the reins in September 2023 after Bob Holt OBE was effectively forced out of the role by Boohoo Group plc following months of boardroom battles – left for a role in the US.
Revolution also reached a settlement with former CEO and co-founder Adam Minto last year, who agreed to pay the sum of £2.9m to the cosmetics brand after it accused him of breaching his fiduciary duties to the company.
Earlier this year it then entered into a confidential settlement with Chrysalis Investments – which had threatened legal action – despite strongly contesting the claims made against it.
Revolution Beauty’s fully £32m revolving credit facility runs to October 2025. The company said its banking partners remain supportive, and that it has been in active and constructive dialogue with them regarding amending and extending the current arrangement.