British Billionaire Mike Ashley buys 8.8% of Under Armour, a stock that has lost 90% since 2016

British billionaire Mike Ashley has bought 8.78% of Under Armour, adding the fading American sportswear brand to a portfolio of distressed names his Frasers Group has assembled this year, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Frasers holds about 16.6 million Class A shares, the filing shows, a position worth roughly $77 million at Monday morning's price of $4.62. Under Armour shares peaked at $45.41 in April 2016; they have since lost almost 90% of their value as the brand has been squeezed by Nike, Adidas and a wave of newer labels such as On and Hoka.

Founder Kevin Plank, who returned as chief executive in 2024, welcomed the arrival. "We are pleased to welcome Frasers Group as a strategic shareholder in Under Armour, joining other significant long-term shareholders, including Fairfax/Hamblin Watsa and BDT/MSD," he said in a statement to Footwear News. "We look forward to building on our relationship with Frasers as both a shareholder and an important commercial partner."

The stake changes nothing about who runs the company. Plank owns all of Under Armour's Class B shares, which carry about 65% of the voting power, against an economic interest of roughly 12%. Frasers is a shareholder, not a kingmaker, and its route to influence runs through its stores, which stock the brand across Britain and Europe, rather than through the ballot.

That is the Ashley method. Frasers, which grew out of the Sports Direct chain Ashley founded in 1982 and took its name from the House of Fraser department stores he bought out of administration in 2018, has spent the year buying into companies in trouble. In January it took a 5.77% stake in Puma, held in Ashley's own name, which made him the German brand's second-largest shareholder after China's Anta Sports paid 1.5 billion euros for the 29% block owned by the Pinault family's Artemis. In July it disclosed put options over 15 million Burberry shares, a 4.2% position. In August it bought the loss-making Harvey Nichols chain out of administration from Hong Kong's Dickson Poon. Earlier stakes in Hugo Boss, ASOS and Boohoo followed the same logic: buy cheap, secure supply and distribution terms, and wait.

Under Armour fits the pattern. Its fiscal first-quarter results in August showed revenue down 3% to $1.10 billion, with North America, its home market, down 9% to $610 million and only international sales growing, up 5% to $490 million. Footwear fell 8%, apparel 2%, direct-to-consumer 6%. The company's market value, at about $2 billion, is a fraction of the $20 billion it commanded a decade ago.

Ashley, 61, has a net worth Forbes puts at about $4 billion and a reputation as the retail sector's most persistent bargain hunter, buying into brands at the point of maximum pessimism. Under Armour at $4.62, with a founder who cannot be unseated and a sales line still shrinking, is close to that point. Whether it is the bottom is the bet.