Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is to ask MPs to investigate the handling of the sale of Peacocks after the fashion chain was sold to a group backed by former owner Philip Day. Ashley, who controls Sports Direct and House of Fraser, lost out in his attempt to buy Peacocks after multimillionaire Day backed a management-led deal to keep his Peacocks fashion chain afloat – saving 2,000 jobs and just under half of the chain’s 423 stores. The deal comes after more than 200 Peacocks stores closed with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs when the chain called in administrators in November last year. On Tuesday, EWM Group, the private investment firm controlled by the Day family, said it was providing a deferred loan to a management buyout of Peacocks led by Steve Simpson, the chief executive of Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Day’s righthand man. The buyout is also being supported by a group of unnamed Middle East investors, understood to be associates of Day, who are providing working capital to help support Peacocks’ return to trading. In a letter seen by the Guardian, Mike Lennon, a restructuring expert at Duff & Phelps acting for Frasers, claims that Ashley’s retail group had “lost all faith in the process” after a “number of obstructions”. A stock market statement put out by Frasers on Tuesday also complained that the actions of the administrators FRP and Day had made it “virtually impossible” for Frasers or another third party to buy Peacocks. The letter to FRP, which handled the insolvency process and sale of Peacocks, claims that a £66m bid by Frasers was topped by Simpson’s group after being put to Day, who has significant influence over the future of the fashion chain as its key secured creditor. Frasers also claims that Peacocks’ intellectual property rights (IP) – the right to use its brands and logos – were reassigned shortly before the chain was put into administration in an attempt to deter outside bidders. Frasers enlisted forensic experts to investigate the transfer of the IP. They questioned the authenticity of a document which indicated the transfer happened in February rather than November, the time of the administration. FRP unwound the transfer on the basis that it undervalued the IP. Frasers is to raise its concerns with the all-party parliamentary group on fair business banking, which is conducting an in-depth investigation into standards in the UK insolvency profession, in response to claims that some practitioners are prioritising lenders’ interests over those of business or other creditors. A spokesperson for the Peacocks’ administrators at FRP said: “All of our sales processes are fair, robust and conducted confidentially. “All interested parties are given the same access to information and outcome of those processes and our statutory investigations are communicated, in line with our duties, to creditors at the appropriate time.” Peacocks, a Cardiff-based budget fashion chain, which Albert Peacock founded as a penny bazaar in Warrington, Cheshire, in 1884, was part of Day’s EWM Group, which included Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Jaeger and Ponden Home. The Jaeger brand was bought by Marks & Spencer in January. All the group’s retailers were put into administration after months of forced high street closures prompted by efforts to control the spread of Covid-19. The lockdowns and slump in spending on clothing during the pandemic have driven the exit from the high street of several well-known names including Topshop, Debenhams and Laura Ashley. The structure of the Peacocks buyout is similar to those cut in January for Day’s Bonmarché, Ponden Home and Edinburgh Woollen Mill chains, which are all now run by Simpson. Ahead of those deals, 85 Edinburgh Woollen Mill, 34 Ponden Home and 148 Bonmarché stores closed. More than 300 stores and about 2,000 jobs were saved. Day, who has recently lived in Dubai and Switzerland and also owns a castle in Cumbria, will not be involved in the running of the businesses but retains a certain level of control as a significant secured creditor to Peacocks and Purepay Retail, the vehicle which owns Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ponden Home and Bonmarché. Day declined to comment.