£370m windfall for Ashley as Sports Direct shares soar

■ Stock up 31pc as profits rise ■ ‘Green shoots of recovery’ at House of Fraser ■ Stores still set to close

MIKE Ashley was £370m richer last night after Sport Direct’s shares soared more than 30pc.

The controversial tycoon, who owns 63.3pc of the company, delighted investors with a half-year update declaring that sales and profits were up and a £560m tax probe was almost resolved.

He also claimed ‘green shoots of recovery’ were finally emerging at House of Fraser, the troubled department store chain he bought out of administration for £90m last year.

It sent Sports Direct’s stock 31.2pc, or 112.2p higher, to 472.2p, taking the value of Ashley’s 330m shares to about £1.6bn. The 55-year-old’s proposal to rename the Sports Direct group ‘Frasers’ – a symbolic change to reflect its planned move upmarket – was also voted through by investors.

The businessman suggested he could create a £100m bonus scheme for staff – making a handful of millionaires.

And he unleashed a volley of characteristically blunt attacks on adversaries, including:

■ ‘Clueless’ Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who attacked Ashley during the election campaign, for showing ‘zero awareness’ that Sports Direct already had a worker appointed to its board;

■ Ministers over an ‘unintelligible’ business rates system which is ‘helping to kill much of what remains of the High Street’;

■ Shareholder advisory group Pirc, which he said Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin had been right to call ‘hypocritical’;

■ The board of Debenhams and its advisers, for the ‘outrageous wiping out of shareholders’ such as Sports Direct in the retailer’s rescue deal;

■ The auditors and board of Goals Soccer Centres, the firm Sports Direct held 19pc of which has been gripped by a fraud scandal, for ‘incompetence or worse’.

Ashley’s comments were accompanied by strong half-year numbers from Sports Direct.

The company said sales rose 14pc to £2bn in the six months to October 27, while profits surged 160pc to £193.4m.

That was after Ashley stepped in to snap up several High Street businesses in recent years, including House of Fraser, Evans Cycles for £8m, Jack Wills for £12.8m and Brookfield Shopping Park in

Hertfordshire for £25.4m. The tycoon has focused on a so-called ‘elevation’ strategy of improving his stores and winning over bigname, luxury brands to sell in them. Sports Direct said House of Fraser was almost fully merged with the rest of the business and that its revival was under way. However, he added that stores were still under threat.

‘We are doing as much as we can to realistically save as many jobs and stores as possible. However, despite our best efforts, there are still a number of stores which are currently paying zero rent and that are unprofitable and thus not sustainable,’ he said.

The businessman also claimed a dispute with Belgian tax authorities over a £560m bill was close to being resolved and that his company was in the clear.

It was in sharp contrast to the company’s disastrous full-year results in July, which were delayed several times and revealed the shock Belgian demand for the first time.