French Connection is facing a rebellion from an activist shareholder demanding the end of the FCUK brand
French Connection is facing rebellion from an activist shareholder who has built up an eight per cent holding and is reported to want the retailer to drop its famous FCUK branding.
Gatemore Capital Management has criticised French Connection’s performance since 2008, according to the Sunday Times, and urged founder Stephen Marks to split his joint roles as the retailer’s chairman and chief executive.
French Connection’s share price closed at 40p on Friday, its highest price since early June, but substantially down on historic highs – the firm briefly hit 90p a share in 2014, and topped 100p in 2011.
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Gatemore reportedly said that the firm had fallen behind rivals like Ted Baker and SuperDry owner SuperGroup.
The investor has called on French Connection to reduce the size of product ranges, speed up the closure of loss-making stores, and ditch its FCUK branding, which it said was no longer “aspirational”.
Gatemore and French Connection could not be reached for comment.