Sports Direct £44m richer after property sale

Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct retail group has netted a windfall by selling off its West End offices to the expanding University of Westminster.

The 999-year lease on 120 New Cavendish Street was sold for £44m this week.

The price agreed for the 32,500 sq ft office block is well in excess of the £38m that the property agents Michael Elliott and Savills were instructed to seek.

The university, advised by the agent Hanover Green, will use the building as extra teaching space for its 20,000 students. It already uses two other properties on the same street, which is located between Oxford Street and Great Portland Street.

The central London offices currently house a number of Mr Ashley’s investments, including the “flash sales” outfit MySale, along with Sports Direct staff who will eventually move to other offices.

Geoff Petts, vice chancellor at the University of Westminster, said the purchase of 120 New Cavendish Street “is part of the next phase of our growth”.

Separately, Mr Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United FC, last month emerged as the £200m financial backer for the development of a storage depot in Chelsea, to create 62 flats and seven townhouses that could be worth £900m when completed.

Sports Direct’s headquarters in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, were visited earlier this week as part of an investigation by Scottish police into the former owners of Rangers FC, in which Mr Ashley now has a 9 per cent stake. Sports Direct said the probe does not concern either the retailer or Mr Ashley.

“The investigation is not directed at Sports Direct or at any of its directors or employees,” it said in a statement. “The police were seeking documentation which might assist the investigation. Sports Direct has co-operated fully and will continue to co-operate in the provision of information that the police request.”