Shareholders of Boohoo have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal from Mike Ashley's Frasers Group to remove the company's co-founder and vice chair, Mahmud Kamani, from the board.
The proposal was voted down by a margin of two to one, with four-fifths of shareholders participating and two-thirds of those voting in favour of retaining Kamani, as reported by .
Boohoo stated that it had the "clear support of shareholders" and called on Frasers to "end its attempts to destabilise and disrupt the group". The company added that the continued distractions were not in the best interests of creating value for all shareholders.
The dispute between the two companies has been ongoing since October, when Boohoo's CEO John Lyttle stepped down and Frasers, which owns around 27% of Boohoo, attempted to install Ashley as his successor. However, this move was rejected, and former Debenhams chief Dan Finley was appointed instead.
Ashley had claimed that he wanted to help Boohoo return to profit after a period of destabilisation, during which the company has faced increased competition from cheaper rivals such as Shein and Temu. Boohoo's latest half-year results showed a 15% fall in revenue, a 10.5% decline in adjusted operating profit, and an increase in net debt of over £100m.
Boohoo's non-executive chair Tim Morris expressed his gratitude to company investors, stating: "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."
He went on to reference the past events, pointing out, "Today’s outcome follows the rejection in December of the previous Frasers attempt to destabilise boohoo."
He added, "On both occasions 99 per cent of investors who are not connected to Frasers backed the board’s position."
It was also noted that Boohoo's share price has experienced a downturn by more than nine per cent in the past month and over 90 per cent in the last five years.
