Sports Direct’s £51m Game bid

Retail tycoon Mike Ashley has continued his high street spending spree with a £51.9 million bid for Game Digital, but warned over possible store closures and job losses.

Ashley’ s Sports Direct is offering 30p a share for Game under the cash bid, which was triggered under UK takeover rules after it upped its stake in the video games chain to 38.5 per cent.

Sports Direct signalled there maybe store closure sand job losses if the bid succeeds amid plans to review Game’s operations and potentially merge some sites into its wider empire.

It marks Ashley’s latest move to expand across the UK high street, having already snapped up department store chain House of Fraser, Evans Cycles and online player Sofa.com in the past year.

Sports Direct was already Game’s largest investor and has been a shareholder since July 2017. It has been working with the video game retailer to roll out concessions and its competitive gaming and esports arenas, called Belong, in which it has bought a 50 per cent share of the intellectual property rights.

The group said it would look to open Belong sites within Sports Direct, House of Fraser or elsewhere in the group and that its review of Game would cover its stores, headquarters and distribution centre.

Sports Direct cautioned this could “result in consolidation or closure of Game sites and a consequent reduction or relocation in the employment of Game’s employees and management”.

It said :“Sports Direct does not believe that, as as tandalone business, Game is able to weather the pressures that it is facing.” The group added that the 30p-a-share bid was final and represented a 27 per cent premium to Game’s closing price on Tuesday of 23.55p.

Game has been battling tough market conditions, while hardware and console sales have been hit by competition.