Mike Ashley's Frasers Group has snapped up Harvey Nichols after the luxury department store warned it could run out of money if it did not find a buyer.
The retail tycoon, who launched Mike Ashley Sports in Maidenhead in 1982 before renaming it Sports Soccer in the mid-90s, will add the 195-year-old store to his Frasers empire.
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, sees Frasers buy a slimmed-down Harvey Nichols after buying it through a pre-pack administration.
It will buy six stores - including its flagship Knightsbridge store - as well as its online and international franchise businesses.
It will offer relief to the department store's 1,200 staff in the UK, who have been facing uncertainty since owner Sir Dickson Poon put the business up for sale in June.
