Ashley nets £106m in Sports Direct stake sale
The sale of 16 million shares at 662.5p each, which leaves Ashley holding 61.7 per cent of the sportswear retailer, comes less than a year after he raised £100m by offloading a 4 per cent holding.
Ashley’s latest move was announced the day after Sports Direct, which was recently promoted to the FTSE 100 index, reported a 15.1 per cent surge in sales to £463.7 million for the nine weeks to 29 September.
The chain has been benefiting from the demise of rival JJB Sports and is on track to meet its full-year underlying profit target of £310m, before staff bonus payments.