Mike Ashley makes £1.73b offer after losing out on Sheffield Wednesday takeover | OneFootball

Mike Ashley is looking to complete a significant purchase after falling short in his efforts to take over Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday's protracted takeover saga may have met its conclusion last month when Arise Capital Partners finally completed a purchase of the South Yorkshire club, but that doesn't mean to say that the Hillsborough faithful won't retain a level of interest in developments involving those who had looked to seal a deal.

The Owls are now heading into a new and long-awaited chapter under the ownership of Arise, who, led by David Storch, will be looking to rebuild the side in League One next season following Dejphon Chansiri's ruinous reign in this corner of the Steel City.

Storch ultimately won the race to buy Wednesday and direct the club's latest era, but the American businessman wasn't without competition as a host of parties made their own respective plays to take over the then-Championship side after entering administration late last year.

The recurrent interest of one particular figurehead - Mike Ashley - was especially notable, as the former Newcastle United owner repeatedly attempted to return to sporting ownership with more than one attempt of purchasing Wednesday.

Having initially emerged as a leading bidder back in December before being usurped by James Bord, the collapse of that takeover would see Ashley reignite his pursuit and the billionaire returned to the fore with a reported £20 million bid.

That offering was then trumped by Storch, with the prospect of Ashley's ownership at Hillsborough having left Wednesdayites in divide. Storch's takeover means that, all things considered, it's likely we won't see Ashley in the running to buy the Owls again, but the 61-year-old is still making interesting developments elsewhere in a new update.

Mike Ashley makes £1.73b offer after losing out on Sheffield Wednesday takeover

Having missed out on a takeover of Wednesday, Ashley is launching a stunning fresh bid of his own in a different avenue. This time, however, he's not trying to take over another club.

Instead, Ashley's Frasers Group are reported by the BBC to have lodged a takeover offer for Hugo Boss, with the retail group already owning over a quarter of the popular German fashion brand after building up a stake since 2020.

Ashley is looking to make a serious play on that front, though, and the group have now confirmed its intention to purchase the rest of the brand. It's said that any such purchase would be worth some €1.98bn (£1.73bn), with Hugo Boss now set to run the rule over the offer on the table.

Should a deal be completed, it would see Frasers expand their empire further as Ashley's company already owns House of Fraser, Evans Cycles, Jack Wills and Game among other notable brands. Hugo Boss, however, would represent the largest brand in Ashley's empire, and it appears as though Frasers is confident of sealing the purchase.

Frasers is close to the 30% ownership that is required in order to make an ultimate offer for the entire company after gradual shareholding stake development, and the group is reportedly expecting the takeover to be completed by the end of the year.

Because it has grown its shareholding so much, Frasers is now close to the 30% ownership level that German law requires it to make an offer for the whole company.

Hugo Boss, meanwhile, said the "unsolicited" offer had "not been coordinated with the company", and that it would "inform its shareholders and the public about further developments and next steps".

Latest Mike Ashley, post-Sheffield Wednesday development is interesting

Even though Ashley's latest takeover efforts aren't related to a football club, with it remaining unclear whether the businessman will ever return to that avenue again, it's still interesting to see what he's doing outside of the game.

Ashley has always been bullish and ambitious in his business ventures, and this would be a major statement of intent from the ex-Newcastle figure if Frasers can get a deal to purchase Hugo Boss in its entirety over the line.

They're clearly confident of doing so, and that may just say something about the growing likelihood of that takeover being completed after his failure to purchase the Owls.

For now, at least, it will be intriguing to see how developments play out, and though Ashley's presence is now in the past as far as Wednesdayites will be concerned, it still makes for an interesting and eye-catching update.