MIKE Ashley’s Frasers Group last night launched a fresh £111million bid for Mulberry — while fanning doubts about the luxury bag group’s survival chances.

The move came hours after it emerged Frasers had invested £10million in online firm THG’s cash call.

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THG, formerly The Hut Group, raised £95million to fund taking its Ingenuity tech unit private.

Mulberry had rejected Mr Ashley’s previous £83million approach in favour of a £10million fundraising, backed by its biggest ­investor Challice Group, which is controlled by Singapore billionaire Christina Ong.

However, after the London stock market closed yesterday Frasers, which has a 37 per cent stake in Mulberry already, launched a new 150p-a-share approach.

Mulberry is currently valued at £79.9million on the stock market.

Frasers said it had significant reservations that the £10million raised will be enough to support the firm.

Mr Ashley suggested his ownership would “ensure its long-term survival and success”.

He has had hits and misses with investments in rival retailers — notably Matches Fashion, which went into administration.

Meanwhile, THG boss Matt Moulding had another swipe at the London Stock Exchange.

He said: “It’s clear the LSE isn’t a place for a tech/infrastructure business like Ingenuity.”

Power push

SCOTTISH POWER is doubling its investment in Britain from £12billion to £24billion — in a vote of confidence for the country.

The business, owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, plans to upgrade high-voltage cables and build more wind farms to back a Government push to cut UK reliance on gas imports.

Jobs gloomy

THE jobs market has remained in the doldrums over the summer, according to recruiter Hays.

It reported that fees from job placings had dropped by a fifth over the past three months, with permanent jobs slumping the most.

Hays is also cutting its own workforce by another 200 employees.

Good week

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Bad week

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DP World has shelved an announcement of a £1bn cash injection into its main London port on the eve of the UK’s international investment summit, triggering a row between ministers over who was to blame.

The Dubai-based company owns P&O Ferries, which was called a “cowboy operator” earlier this week by UK transport secretary Louise Haigh, a reference to its firing and rehiring of 800 staff two years ago.

The Labour government is banning such practices as part of its overhaul of employment laws set out in a bill on workers’ rights published this week. 

DP World has been finalising plans to invest £1bn into its London Gateway container port in Essex, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Although the project is still likely to go ahead, people close to the company say, it is unlikely to be announced as part of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s international investment summit on Monday.

A report that DP World had delayed the announcement earlier on Friday in response to Haigh’s comments set off political recriminations, with divisions emerging at the highest level of government.

Within hours Downing Street was distancing itself from the transport secretary’s words. “Louise Haigh’s comments were her own personal view and don’t represent the view of the government,” said a Number 10 official.

“We continue to work closely with DP World, which has already delivered significant investment in the London Gateway and Southampton ports, to help deliver for the UK economy,” they added.

But another Whitehall figure said a press release on the government website that on Wednesday called P&O a “rogue employer” had been signed off by Downing Street in advance.

“It’s for the birds that they didn’t have sight of this from start to finish,” he said. “Also, various cabinet ministers have used language about P&O having been ‘rogue operators’ over the last two years. This is not something new.”

The Labour government’s investment summit on Monday is designed to show the world that Britain is “open for business”, with various other announcements from other companies.

One Dubai-based executive said Number 10 was wise to distance itself from Haigh’s comments, but insisted that DP World’s investment decisions were based on commercial realities rather than political barbs.

DP World had not managed to finalise internal reviews in time to coincide with the summit, the executive added.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the chief executive of the conglomerate, was still planning to attend the conference on Monday, two people familiar with his plans said. A media report earlier on Friday had suggested he was going to cancel the trip.

Another person said Downing Street’s firm intervention would make it more likely that other representatives from big UAE investors — such as sovereign wealth funds — will attend the summit.

The argument highlights the tension between the government’s attempts to improve workers’ rights and its efforts to attract big business investments from around the world. 

Another industry executive close to DP World said the company was still planning to invest in the expansion, adding that the development would be driven by business rather than politics. But it was now unclear whether the group wanted to announce this at the summit, the person added.

A UK government official said DP World was “driven commercially” and retained “big plans” for investment into the UK. The board oversight of the investment, which had been in the works for some time, was not in response to the comments, the official added. 

DP World’s investments into the UK have formed a major part of the large deployment of capital into the country from the United Arab Emirates, which in 2021 signed a £10bn strategic bilateral investment partnership. The company declined to comment.

The new government’s flagship event has already been criticised by businesses over its poor organisation. Several CEOs due to attend have been left questioning whether to make the trip, the FT previously reported.

A HOUSE hunter claims a £500,000 London property she was browsing was not a three-storey townhouse – but the “shed” next door.

The property in Hackney, London, demands “offers in excess of £525,000” – despite being a long, slim building of just 545sqft.

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The so-called shed has been converted into one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen.

But the property is attached to a large three-storey property that has left some social media users baffled over which home they would be actually buying.

TikTok user Charlotte Moran shared a clip after coming across the bizarre listing captioned, “Hackney has me deceased” – gaining tens of thousands of views.

In the clip, Charlotte points at the bigger property, saying: “I’m looking at this. I thought, wow, look at that house”.

She then points at a tiny white building next to it and shocking adds “no, it’s the shed on the side for half a million pounds.”

Many users have taken to the comments to express that the thought of the shed being for sale at the price is “insane” and even likened the property to a “portacabin”.

But other users have argued that it’s “pretty cheap for Hackney standards”, with one stating: “You’re paying for the potential.”

Listed by Winkworth estate agents, the newly refurbished home promises to be “functional and aesthetically pleasing” as well as offering an “enchanting’” outdoor space – with parking included.

A spokesperson for Winkworth said: “You wouldn’t get that type of house for £525,000.

“Anyone who thinks that doesn’t necessarily know about property in my opinion.

“If it was up to me it’d be slightly less but the potential to go up an extra story and make it into a nice two-story house with a garden.

“It’s attached to another building so effectively you have to take the picture of the whole thing. It’s part of the freehold of that building. You have to show that as well because it is a conversion.

“Considering that’s also part of the same [building] it will be all under the same freehold company you do have to show the building.

“The main benefits are that it’s got a garden, it’s gated, it’s got its own driveway. It’s very close to Clapton station and has been recently refurbished.

“It’s a very sought after area. It’s very central.

“The potential justifies the price. To potentially go up and add an extra story.”

However some househunters on social media were less convinced about the price.

One said: “Somebody needs to tell the estate agent, ‘that is a garage sir’.”

Another said: “Stop it. It’s a portacabin.”

One added: “You could literally buy a mansion up here in Scotland for that, it’s wild.”

Charlotte responded: “Honestly Hackney has gone mad.”

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A few years ago, I was sleeping on a train from Sheffield to London when I suddenly awoke as we passed by the imposing cooling towers of the now decommissioned Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station (“Cathedrals of industrial power are ripe for reimagining”, Opinion, October 5).

It was a disorienting experience partly because, as a recent newcomer to this country, I didn’t even realise that anything like this existed in the UK. But my initial shock quickly gave way to fascination and wonder. These cathedrals of industrial power truly are “simultaneously hellish and exciting”, as Edwin Heathcote, your architecture critic, described them.

That’s why I agree with him that they should be preserved and adapted for future generations — not just for posterity’s sake, but in recognition that one unintended consequence of having deliberately removed some of the industrial landscapes of the past is that erasure of local identity, and the sense of belonging, that these edifices of carbon and concrete once instilled.

But what do I know? Before anyone proselytises this way or that, perhaps local communities should be consulted directly so that they can have a say in what happens to them.

Mark Bessoudo
London N1, UK