Mike Ashley is preparing to step down from the board of Frasers Group, the retail conglomerate he founded four decades ago.
The billionaire, who owns 69.1 per cent of the group, has told shareholders he will not be standing for re-election as a director at Frasers’ annual general meeting on October 19. Although he is quitting the board of the company he set up back in 1982, Ashley, 57, said he would make himself available “in an advisory capacity when called upon”.
His departure will mark the formal handing over of the company to Michael Murray, his son-in-law, who recently claimed Ashley “never really wanted to be chief executive” and only stepped in to fill the void left by Dave Forsey’s exit back in 2016.
Murray, 32, was made chief executive of Frasers, formerly known as Sports Direct, in May when Ashley become its deputy chairman.
Ashley said: “Since Michael Murray took over the leadership of Frasers Group earlier this year, the business has gone from strength to strength. It is clear that the group has the right leadership and strategy in place and I feel very confident passing the baton to Michael and his team.
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“Although I am stepping down from the board, I remain 100 per cent committed to supporting Frasers and Michael’s plans and ambitions, and I look forward to helping the team as and when they require me. My commitment and support as a Frasers’ shareholder is as strong as ever.”
Murray, who is married to Ashley’s eldest daughter Anna, praised his father-in-law for building an “incredible business”, and added: “On behalf of the board and the group, I want to thank him for all he has done. With our new strategy and leadership team, we are driving this business forward at pace and we are all excited for the future. We are grateful to have Mike’s support and expertise available to us as we continue the next stage of Frasers Group’s journey.”
After an injury dashed any hopes of becoming a professional squash player, Ashley founded his retail empire with a single sports shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in 1982. He has turned it into one of the country’s biggest retailers with a stock market value of nearly £4 billion — good enough for a spot on the FTSE 100.
The group started off as Sports Direct, but its name was changed to Frasers four years ago after the purchase of the eponymous high street department stores chain. It now has 815 Sports Direct, Evans Cycles and Game shops in Britain, 43 House of Fraser stores, 44 Flannels shops, 56 Jack Wills shops and 565 sites overseas.
A number of the senior management team who built up Sports Direct in the Nineties and Noughties, including Ashley, Forsey and Karen Byers, its former head of retail, have now left the business.
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Ashley’s time running the company has not been without controversy or colour. He has settled six-figure bills over games of spoof, described himself as a “power drinker” and clashed on many occasions with City investors and analysts.
After the resignation of Keith Hellawell, his friend and Sports Direct’s chairman, in 2018, Ashley said that shareholders had “stabbed [the company] in the back by repeatedly hounding” Hellawell.
Ashley’s sudden exit took many in the City by surprise, with the shares closing down 9p, or 1.2 per cent, at 777p. Over the past year, the stock has risen by 15 per cent.
If, before October 2025, Murray can get the Frasers share price above £15 and keep it there for a month, he will receive shares worth £100 million.
Murray has been the driving force behind Frasers’ “elevation” strategy to improve and refurbish the group’s vast store estate in an attempt to woo more upmarket brands into letting Frasers stock their products.
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Ashley’s parting gift to the company — and to Murray — is a new £100 million loan he is providing, which he said was a sign of his “continued strong support for the business and its elevation strategy”.
Behind the story
Mike Ashley’s announcement that he will be quitting the board of Frasers Group caught many in the City on the hop — few had thought he would ever leave a business he had spent 40 years building up (Tom Howard writes).
But is he really leaving for good? The majority in the Square Mile think Ashley will still be pulling the strings in the background.
Clive Black, a retail analyst at Shore Capital, is one. He thinks the tycoon will retain more influence than would be usual for a departing director. “He’s a very large shareholder, he’s just lent the business £100 million and his son-in-law is the chief executive,” Black said. “He’s a passenger seat driver, not a back-seat driver.”
Another retail industry source pointed to a recent bid for MySale, a small Australian online retailer, as having “Mad Mike’s fingerprints all over it”. They added: “He will obviously be a back-seat driver given his huge shareholding.”
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Ashley has been a lightning rod for corporate criticism, given his atypical working practices, and there is a suspicion among some that he might be ditching his boardroom role in an effort to escape the rules and regulations that come with being a director of a listed business.
One analyst said: “Maybe not being on the board suits him down to the ground. He can still have influence without all the compliance [restrictions].”
Black agreed that the constraints and protocols that come with a seat at the boardroom table “make [Ashley] a square peg in a round hole”.
Ashley has often taken punts on distressed brands over the years. Not all those bets have paid off, including his investments in Debenhams and Goals Soccer Centres. Since taking over as chief executive in May, Michael Murray has already offloaded the group’s stakes in Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports.
There is some intrigue among analysts and investors as to whether Murray will continue with his father-in-law’s scattergun approach to acquisitions, or if he will unwind more investments.
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“One of the interesting features to look out for will be whether, without Ashley on the board, Frasers still engages in those kinds of investments,” Black said.
