Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley to take over Irish retailer Heatons
Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley is on course to take over a well-known Irish high street chain.
The billionaire’s Sports Direct company, which owns half of the shares in Heatons, has struck a €47.5m deal which would see him buy up the clothes and homeware retailer.
Heatons has 44 stores in the Republic and 10 in the North.
Sports Direct chief executive Dave Forsey said: “We look forward to accelerating investment into the existing store portfolio and strengthening the Heatons and Sports Direct brands across Ireland.”
Mr Ashley secured an initial agreement with minority shareholder Sandra Minor to buy a stake in Warrnambool, the holding company of Heatons.
When that deal goes through, Sports Direct will own more than half of the company and it has a conditional agreement to then buy the remaining shares from Mark Heaton, Hugh Heaton, John O’Neill, Warrnambool and Katipo Limited.
Twenty-seven of Heatons’ 44 stores in the Republic have a dedicated instore SportsWorld section, while shops in the North either have a Sports Direct branded section or have a Sports Direct outlet in the same premises.
Warrnambool also owns and operates five stand-alone Sports Direct branded stores in the North.
In the year to the end of April last year, the holding company had revenues of more than €219m, gross assets of €158m and profits before tax of €10m.
The deal is subject to clearance from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
