Mike Ashley owns a wide collection of assets and holds them through a web of vehicles. Using disclosures from Companies House, Land Registry, the Stock Exchange and sources with knowledge of the tycoon and Sports Direct, the Guardian has been able to build a diagram showing Ashley’s empire. It includes Sports Direct and Newcastle United but also a diverse collection of property, brands and shareholdings. Overall, Ashley is registered as a director in more than 200 companies.
Ashley’s main company is Mash Holdings Ltd, which holds the vast majority of his assets. Its name comes from an abbreviation of his first and surname.
However, he also has a collection of interests outside Mash. These include his home in affluent Totteridge, north London, and two ski chalets in Verbier. Ashley is a keen skier so uses the chalets himself. However, they are also lent out to top-performing Sports Direct staff every year in one of the company’s main staff initiatives.
Another property held by Ashley was the Forge Retail Park in Glasgow. However, the sale of the property was announced earlier this year in a deal worth £84m.
The tycoon also has a 50% stake in a property venture called Ashleigh Property Holdings Ltd. The other half of this vehicle is owned by a man called Douglas Leigh, hence the name. Ashleigh Property owns Hickman Properties Limited, which describes itself as a property investment and rental business. At one stage Hickman owned £2.5m of property, but this appears to have been sold eight years ago.
Finally, Ashley owns a company called Mash Aviation Limited, which operates his helicopter. Ashley uses the AgustaWestland AW109 to travel between his home and Sports Direct’s headquarters in Shirebrook, Derbyshire. But it is also taken by senior Sports Direct staff to travel between its businesses, with the company paying Ashley a fee for its use.
Mash Holdings is effectively Ashley’s personal investment vehicle. It owns St James Holdings Limited, which includes Newcastle United football club and all of its subsidiaries.
Mash also owns land in Kensington and Chelsea that used to be home to a John Lewis depot but which property developers backed by Ashley plan to turn into luxury flats.
Most importantly, Mash holds Ashley’s shares in Sports Direct. As it stands today, Ashley still owns a controlling stake of 55.14% in Sports Direct, where he is also executive deputy chairman. Ashley founded the business after he left school in 1982 and started selling shares when he floated the company on the stock market in 2007.
The tycoon reorganised his holding in Sport Direct earlier this year without explanation. Mash still directly owns 4.43% of Sports Direct but 50.71% of the company is now held by Mash Beta, a newly created vehicle. Mash Beta is 74% owned by Mash and 26% owned by another new vehicle, Mash Alpha. Mash Alpha is controlled by Mash, which has provided a guarantee over the company, but at present no shares have been issued for Mash Alpha.
Sports Direct International is the home of the UK’s biggest sportswear chain but also a collection of myriad assets. For example, it owns houses close to Sports Direct’s offices in Shirebrook, JJB Sports’ old headquarters in Wigan, and a seemingly random property in Croydon, south London.
Ashley has also made his investments in other retailers through Sports Direct, so this is where shareholdings in Tesco, Debenhams and House of Fraser sit.
Sports Direct controls an extraordinary collection of brands and other retail chains that Ashley has acquired over the years. These include Cruise, Dunlop, Slazenger, Lillywhites, Lonsdale and Flannels.
In addition, Sports Direct owns a significant number of trademarks, including the Rangers football club badge, and MegaValue.com, a new discount brand that Ashley is launching in high street stores that Sports Direct has abandoned for bigger, out-of-town locations.
The company also controls the retail business of Rangers. Sports Direct secured this business after a deal that also saw Ashley lend the football club £5m but claim its Ibrox stadium and intellectual property, such as the club badge, as security. Rangers insists these will be returned to the football club when the loan is repaid, although it is locked in a legal battle with Ashley.
Other Sports Direct subsidiaries include wholesale businesses such as US-based Antigua Enterprises as well as Smith and Brooks Holdings, which provides head office services. Perhaps most bizarrely, Sports Direct owns the Lion hotel in Worksop, where company executives stay and Ashley can often be seen drinking during the week.