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Fashion retailer order to pay £70 million in divorce

The founder of popular online fashion retailer ASOS has been ordered to pay a £70 million divorce settlement.

Nick Robertson, now 48, co-founded the site in June 2000, at the height of the so-called ‘dotcom bubble’. Named after the acronym for ‘as seen on screen’, it offers clothing, accessories and beauty items to a ten million-strong customer base primarily made of up younger adults. Unlike many other sites founded at the time, ASOS enjoyed success and Mr Robertson became wealthy. He stepped down as Chief Executive last September.

When he split from his wife Janine in 2013, she sought close to half his estimated fortune of £220 million. He by contrast, offered just £30 million in assets. The pair subsequently ran up huge legal bills contesting the matter in court.

Sitting in the Family Division of the High Court, Mr Justice Holman has now ordered Mr Robertson to pay her a divorce settlement of approximately £70 million. According to a report in the Telegraph, questions arose over the precise value of some shares and property owned by Mr Robertson.

Although the former ASOS Chief Executive had been the money-maker in the family, his wife had been an “excellent home-maker and an excellent mother” the Judge declared, and both had made equal contributions to the marriage.

In his ruling, the High Court Judge noted that he had urged the former couple to settle at an earlier stage in the proceedings but “no compromise [had] resulted.”

Janine Robertson did not attend hearing. The couple, who have two children, met in 2002, two years after the site was founded, eventually marrying in 2004.

The blog team at Stowe is a group of writers based across our family law offices who share their advice on the wellbeing and emotional aspects of divorce or separation from personal experience. As well as pieces from our family law solicitors, guest contributors also regularly contribute to share their knowledge.

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Comment(1)

  1. Andrew says:

    They’ll both get by, won’t they?
    .
    Yet another case where Calderbank might have led to a more realistic view on both sides.

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