Who Owns Debenhams?

Debenhams the department store no longer exists — the company was dissolved and the name was bought. Boohoo acquired the brand and online business out of administration in 2021 for a reported £55m, closed every shop, and in 2025 renamed itself Debenhams Group — adopting the name of the company it had bought. Its largest shareholder is Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, at around 29%, which opposed the rename. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Debenhams today?

What survives is a brand and a website, not a retailer. DEBENHAMS PLC (05448421), the department store company, was dissolved on 26 October 2024 — the register records the end of the business as a legal entity, four years after the shops closed.

The name is now used by the group formerly called boohoo, whose UK companies sit at 49–51 Dale Street, Manchester. DEBENHAMS GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED (11941376), incorporated 11 April 2019, records Mr Mahmud Abdulla Kamani as having significant influence or control.

Ultimate parent and corporate structure

The listed parent is registered in Jersey, which matters for what follows: Jersey company law requires a higher majority for a name change than England does.

The group announced its rebrand from boohoo to Debenhams Group in March 2025, reflecting a shift to a marketplace model built around the Debenhams site. Frasers Group voted against it, and reporting indicates the resolution drew around 62% support against a two-thirds threshold — short of what Jersey law required at that vote.

So the group trades as Debenhams Group while the formal position on the registered name has been contested. Anyone needing the legal name as opposed to the trading name should check the current filings rather than rely on the branding.

Major shareholders or controlling persons

Frasers Group — Mike Ashley’s company — is the largest shareholder at a reported 29%, and is simultaneously a competitor. It has used that position to vote against board proposals, including the rename.

Mahmud Kamani, who co-founded boohoo, holds a reported 11% and is executive chairman. He is the only individual named on the UK subsidiary’s PSC register.

That register also records four ceased entries, all on 4 December 2019: Jalaludin, Rabia and Nurez Kamani, and Carol Kane, boohoo’s co-founder. All had been notified on 11 April 2019 and ceased together eight months later — a reorganisation rather than four separate departures.

A largest shareholder that is also a rival, holding under 30% and voting against the board, is an unusual and unstable ownership position, and it is the defining feature of this company.

Official records and evidence

Companies House establishes the dissolution of the original Debenhams plc, the Manchester companies, and Kamani’s PSC entry.

It does not establish the shareholdings above, because the listed parent is Jersey-registered and discloses through market announcements rather than a UK PSC register. Frasers’ stake and Kamani’s are reported figures from those disclosures.

The register is also crowded: several companies carry the Debenhams name at the Manchester address, and an unrelated Debenhams Ottaway LLP is a St Albans law firm with no connection to any of it.

Ownership history and changes

Debenhams traded from 1778 and was one of the largest department store chains in Britain. Its collapse followed a well-documented sequence:

• 2003 — taken private by a private equity consortium, and refloated in 2006 carrying substantial debt.
• 2019 — falls into administration; lenders take control in a pre-pack, wiping out shareholders including Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct, which had built a large stake.
• 2020 — a second administration; no buyer is found for the stores.
• January 2021 — boohoo buys the brand and online business for a reported £55m, taking no shops and no staff. All 118 stores close.
• 2024 — Debenhams plc is dissolved.
• 2025 — boohoo adopts the Debenhams Group name.

The 2021 purchase is the point worth understanding. Boohoo bought the brand, not the retailer — a common outcome in modern administrations, where intellectual property survives and the shops, leases and jobs do not.

Related companies and brands

The group owns Debenhams, boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, Karen Millen, Coast, Oasis, Warehouse and Dorothy Perkins — many of them, like Debenhams, brands bought from collapsed retailers and relaunched online without shops.

Frasers Group, its largest shareholder, separately owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser, Flannels and Jack Wills. Frasers is not the parent: it holds a large minority in a company it competes with.