Why shareholders should thank Mike Ashley for his conservative cut at Sports Direct (Frasers, if you prefer)
It’s easy to get carried away with the pantomime villainy of Sports Direct. Sorry. I mean “Frasers”.
For all the vomiting in pub fireplaces, brawling aggression in negotiations and occasional disregard for corporate governance, Mike Ashley runs a surprisingly conservative ship, as a fund manager was pointing out to me only last week.
Where others push the valuations of their assets, profits and revenues as aggressively as they can, he’s old school cautious, rainy-days-may-come.
Today, he’s declared his freehold property estate could have to be written down in value on the books by more than £100 million.
Should shareholders panic? Probably not.
Rather, they should be relieved their hard-earned is being managed by a bloke who, as a fellow major shareholder himself, isn’t keen on running things too hot.
It’s a long termism which goes towards explaining why he, alongside Next, has emerged a clear Covid winner on the High Street.