Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley buys Harvey Nichols

Frasers Group acquires majority of upmarket retailer’s sites from the administrators

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The owner of Sports Direct has bought Harvey Nichols out of administration after the upmarket department store chain warned it could run out of money if it did not find new funding.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said on Thursday it had bought the chain, which is headquartered at its store in Knightsbridge, for an undisclosed sum on the day it was put into administration. Sources said he had paid about £40m for Harvey Nichols, which has 1,200 employees and 13 stores.