Sports Direct (LON:SPD) founder is being sued by a former colleague for £15 million, after “a heavy night of drinking” and false promises in the Horse & Groom pub in London.
Mike Ashley has accused Jeff Blue of being a “liar” and dismissed his claims that Ashley had promised Blue a £15 million bumper pay day if Sports Direct’s share price doubled over three years.
“I take business decisions all day every day, from home, from the bath. Serious, serious decisions are not done on drunken nights out,” he said, dismissing the deal as “total crap”.
Ashley, who owns Newcastle United, told the courts that he did not recall the deal and that it was “obviously just banter”.
He said that Blue was “trying to take me for £14m off the back of some drunk banter that he is seeking to engineer into something more”.
Any talk the pair might have had on that evening in 2013 was simply them “pulling each other’s legs about what hypothetical value my shares would be worth ‘on paper’ at different share prices”.
Ashley’s former colleague had also said that Ashley often held business deals in pubs, hotels and casinos, to which the billionaire replied: “It’s a drink after work. It’s very boring up in Shirebrook [where the Sports Direct HQ is located]. You know what we do after work? We go to the pub.”
“I find it incredible that Mr Blue is actually suggesting that I made a binding agreement for £15m. It’s nonsense,” Ashley said. “If I did say to Mr Blue that I would pay him £15m if he could increase [Sports Direct’s] share price to £8, it would be obvious to everyone, including Mr Blue, that I wasn’t being serious.”
When asked how much he had drunk that night, Ashley said he had been trying to “get pissed and have a good night out”
And when the Sports Direct founder was asked how much Blue had to drink, he responded: “He would never have been able to keep up. He’s a lightweight when it comes to drinking.”
The hearing continues.
The share in the sports retail company has collapsed to below £3 since the reputational damage caused by a Guardian investigation that revealed the retailer was in effect paying staff in its warehouse less than the minimum wage.