Is Ashley set to put his shirt on Umbro?
Oct 19 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal
ENGLAND kit maker Umbro has heightened speculation over possible takeover interest from Sports World and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.
Umbro told the City it had received a bid approach, but refused to reveal the interested party or parties.
However, speculation will focus on Mr Ashley’s Sports Direct International after it built up a 15% stake in Umbro.
Umbro shares were under pressure earlier yesterday after England’s defeat to Russia hit expectations of a surge in shirt sales in the run-up to the tournament.
The Cheadle-based company warned last month that sales of England replica shirts during the critical summer trading period had been “disappointing”, prompting it to lower sales expectations for 2008.
Sports Direct is Umbro’s second biggest shareholder behind asset manager Jupiter, which holds a 18.7% stake. The most recent share purchase by Sports Direct came this week when it said it had increased its stake from 14%.
Recent deals by Sports Direct have included boxing equipment maker Everlast and Finnish sports firm Amer Sports.
But Sports Direct’s trail of acquisitions since its February flotation has failed to win over investors, who have seen the value of their shares fall by more than half in the last seven months.
Mr Ashley, who founded Sports World in 1982, has labelled some of his critics in the Square Mile “cry babies”, but the company struggled to adapt to life as a publicly-listed business and has been accused of poor communications and vague trading updates.
