Fashion boss cashes in for costly divorce

Nick Robertson, pictured with models, co-founded online fashion empire Asos. Photo / Getty

The joint founder of online fashion chain Asos has sold £46 million in shares to fund a costly divorce, sending the stock down more than 2 per cent yesterday.

Nick Robertson, 48, sold 1.305 million shares, about 1.6 per cent of the fashion business, through a placing to investors at 3535p a share.

In March a High Court judge ruled Robertson would have to hand over about a third of his £220m fortune to ex-wife Janine, with whom he has two children.

She had been hoping for half - £110m - while it is thought legal bills were about £500,000. Robertson, the great-grandson of retailer Austin Reed, married Janine in 2004 and the couple separated in 2013.

She will keep the £12m family home while Robertson has now moved in with his former personal assistant Charlotte Balin.

The pair are believed to have rented a five-bedroom house together in Wimbledon, close to the former family home.

Robertson attended £29,600-a-year Canford School, in Wimborne, Dorset, where he got two Ds and an F in his A-levels. In 1996, he and friend Quentin Griffiths set up Entertainment Marketing.

Four years later they launched Asos with £2.4m, mostly borrowed from friends and family, and turned it into an online giant - making him one of the richest men in Britain. Robertson stepped down from the role of chief executive in 2015, making way for current boss Nick Beighton, but has remained a non-executive director.