An Indian billionaire and two of the City’s most powerful institutions can be revealed as the driving forces behind a brewing shareholder rebellion at Debenhams. The Sunday Times reported that the struggling department store’s three biggest investors — Schroders, Milestone Resources and Old Mutual — are allegedly pushing for a board shake-up.
Milestone is a holding company for Mukesh “Micky” Jagtiani. Micky did his schooling in Chennai, Mumbai and Beirut, before emigrating to London, where he joined an accounting school from which he eventually dropped out.
His first company was a family company diversified into leisure, food, hotels and electronics and its own logistics and distribution, today it employs around 45000+ people and has more than 1000 stores across the Gulf, Middle East and India.
He drove a taxi in London before moving to Bahrain and taking over his deceased family's baby products shop. Over the years his Landmark Group moved to Dubai and expanded into fashion, electronics, furniture and budget hotels in Middle East and Southeast Asia.
In 2008, Jagtiani now a billionaire mall developer and the Chairman, Landmark International, Dubai-based retail group, bought a 6% stake in the UK high-street retailer Debenhams, and entered the Forbes list of billionaires, and the 16th richest Indian with a net worth of £3 billion.
Before the financial crisis struck, he was rumoured to be planning an alleged takeover for Debenhams.
Hit by disastrous trading in 2013, Debenham has been trying to take itself off from a long period of promotions and special offers. The retailer had reported flat sales for the quarter to June.
A senior source at Debenhams said the shift away from discounting would take time but argued that it was working and positive signs would come through in the full-year results next month.
