Tears of joy at Boohoo as shoppers move online

The shift from bricks and mortar to online can be encapsulated by one company this morning: Boohoo. Seemingly unaffected by the pandemic, the fast-fashion retailer — which now has more than twice the market cap of M&S, and gaining on Next — reported a 45 per cent increase in sales in the three months to May, to £368m.

So it’s going shopping. Boohoo raised almost £200m last month so it could buy up retail casualties. This morning it’s added the online businesses and IP of high street chains Warehouse and Oasis to a portfolio that also includes Karen Millen and Coast. Boohoo paid £5.25m for the two new brands. Last month it also stumped up for the minority stake in PrettyLittle Thing it didn’t already own, addressing some of the concerns raised by a short-seller days earlier.

Still, at the end of May it had £350m in net cash on the balance sheet. Expect the spree to continue.

Source: Financial Times