Mike Ashley has a long history of buying up shares of «undervalued» companies, as well as their rivals such as Boohoo and Asos. Photo: Kirsty O'Connor/PA
Morgan Stanley's chief executive is embroiled in a legal battle between Mike Ashley's Frasers Group and the bank over a $1 billion (£810 million) margin call.
Mr Ashley's company, Frasers Group, has asked a US judge to order James Gorman to provide evidence in a UK claim against Morgan Stanley.
Frasers is suing Morgan Stanley for €50 million in damages, alleging that the bank «arbitrarily» and «wrongly» closed bets on Hugo Boss shares and lost the company millions of dollars as a result.
Morgan Stanley demanded $995 million from Frasers in May 2021 to support positions the company had built in Promotion of a German fashion house.
Mr Ashley has a long history of buying up shares in companies he considers undervalued, as well as retail rivals such as Boohoo and Asos.
The so-called margin call was designed to cover up Morgan. Stanley in case of unfavorable share price movements, but Frasers claims that this was «arbitrary» and «capricious».
The retailer claims Morgan Stanley wrongly treated the company as a family office investment vehicle because of Mr. Ashley's actions. big bet.
Ashley reportedly offered £100 million and his entire £1.9 billion Frasers share as collateral to meet the margin call, but his offer was rejected.
Frasers is now demanding that the US court compel Gorman, who has led Morgan Stanley since 2010, to testify and provide documents in the case.
In documents filed in a New York court and seen by The Telegraph, Frasers said it wanted to «understand the extent to which the decision to introduce and maintain the margin requirement was driven (directly or indirectly) by Mr. Gorman.»
Frasers pointed to comments Mr Gorman made ahead of the margin call in which he said the company would «certainly be keeping a close eye on family office type relationships.»
He also noted a CNBC interview in which Mr. Gorman said the bank «went back and looked at all of our margin exposures within the prime brokerage.»
Morgan Stanley took a closer look at his family office business after the collapse of Archegos Capital Management.
Investor Bill Hwang's family office went bankrupt after defaulting on margin calls made by numerous banks, including Credit Suisse, Nomura , Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Collectively, the collapse cost banks around $10bn (£8.1bn). Of which Morgan Stanley's share was $911m (£741m).
Mr Hwang, who himself reportedly lost $20bn (£16.2bn) in two days, pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering, conspiracy, fraud and market manipulation.
Frasers said in her submission to the US court: «To date, Morgan Stanley denies that [Mr Gorman] had any involvement in this matter and has not called him as a witness, despite his clear significance to the English proceedings.» .
“Any communications sent to Mr Gorman prior to his CNBC interview, and any subsequent communications, are likely to contain information highly relevant to the claims in the English proceedings, including the conduct and motivation of Morgan Stanley when submitting and maintaining a margin call.”
Morgan Stanley declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph.
The bank has in the past denied any wrongdoing in what it called a “frivolous” claim by the company. which he never did. had a direct contractual relationship with .
Frasers worked with Danish investment bank Saxo Bank to help it increase its stake in Hugo Boss. Saxo, which gave Frasers a margin call from Morgan Stanley, was also named as a defendant in the suit but reached a confidential settlement with Frasers, documents show.
Frasers said there was no counterclaim from Morgan Stanley.
Свежие комментарии