Boohoo boss steps down as group contemplates break-up

Boohoo said its chief executive was stepping down as the struggling online fashion retailer announced a review of options for each of its divisions to bolster its share price.
The company, which owns brands such as PrettyLittleThing, Debenhams and Karen Millen, said John Lyttle was leaving after five years but would stay on until a successor is found.
The group has also signed a new £222 million debt financing agreement, which it said would pay for the next phase of the group’s development.
Shares in Boohoo, listed on Aim, which have fallen 15 per cent this year and 88 per cent over the past five years, fell 5.7 per cent, or 2p, to 30p.
The company, based in Manchester, has suffered widening losses amid heavy competition from rivals such as Shein and the revival of the high street following the pandemic.
The Times reported in September that the company’s bosses were considering a break-up after pressure from shareholders to boost the share price by spinning off some of the group’s better-performing brands.
Boohoo reported a 7 per cent fall in first-half sales by gross merchandise value before returns to £1.18 billion. It expects higher sales in the second half of the year.
Mahmud Kamani, co-founder and executive chairman, said: “The business has evolved over last few years and has an offer that is much wider than our original focus on young fashion. The time is now right to consider options with regard to corporate structure, with the aim of maximising shareholder value.”
Boohoo said it believed the Group remained fundamentally undervalued following the developments of recent years, which have created a business with five core brands, addressing a diverse global customer base.
The company was founded in 2006 by Kamani and Carol Kane. It was one of the fastest-growing retailers in Britain at the time, riding an online shopping boom. It floated on the junior Aim market of the London Stock Exchange in 2014 at 50p a share.