Sports Direct investors deserting after founder Mike Ashley admits it is 'in trouble'

Share price plunges by 11 per cent as Mike Ashley admits profits are falling

Sports Direct shares plunged 11 per cent or 44.6p to 379.2p (PA)

Sports Direct investors deserted Britain’s largest sporting goods retailer in droves yesterday after its founder admitted it was “in trouble”.

The controversial billionaire Mike Ashley said the company’s profits were falling and laid the blame at the feet of MPs, with whom he is in a very public battle over his refusal to appear before them in Westminster to answer questions about Sport Direct’s workplace practices.

“We are in trouble – we are not trading very well. We can’t make the same profit we made last year,” he said in a media interview. “We are supposed to be taking the profits up – they are not supposed to be coming down. And the more the media frenzy feeds on it, the more it affects us.”

Sports Direct shares plunged 11 per cent or 44.6p to 379.2p, wiping £267m from the company’s market value. The stock is now down more than 30 per cent so far this year – a slide that has led to it being demoted from the blue-chip FTSE 100.

The company did not give any formal notice of a change to its profit guidance.

In a January profit warning brought on by “a deterioration of trading conditions” and “unseasonal weather over the key Christmas period”, it said it was “no longer confident” of meeting its £420m profit target for its full year ending in April and underlying profits could fall as low as £380m.

The downturn coincides with a stand-off between Mr Ashley and the Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee. On Monday the Newcastle United owner reiterated his intention not to give testimony before the committee despite a formal summons to Westminster.

The MPs’ demand – which could trigger a rare use of centuries-old contempt of Parliament proceedings – follows concerns about the retailer’s extensive use of controversial zero-hours contracts and claims about the treatment of workers at the firm’s Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire, which was likened to a “gulag” in a press investigation.

Sports Direct has since assessed its employment policies – Mr Ashley conducted the review – and confirmed it will pay all staff and agency workers more than the minimum wage.

Mr Ashley said it was Sports Directs workers who would bear the brunt of the current “media circus”. The value of a new staff bonus share payout scheme has halved in its first year because of the company’s collapsing share price, he explained.

He also claimed that former Labour leader Ed Miliband had already cost staff £60m in bonus payments by accusing Sports Direct of Victorian working practices during last year’s election campaign.

“The shares are like wallpaper to me, but for the staff this is life-changing,” he said.

“Once you start to spiral a company down, you lose the momentum.

“We have all seen the effect that negative media can have on companies, and that spiral is growing.”