Thursday 04 July 2019 9:00 am

Game management to sell shares to Ashley’s Sports Direct

LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 07: Sports Direct International founder Mike Ashley leaves the Red Lion pub in Westminster to attend a select committee hearing at Portcullis house on June 7, 2016 in London, England. Mike Ashley is to face the Business, Innovations and Skills Parliamentary Select Committee on working practices at his Sports Direct Shirebrook Warehouse in Derbyshire. In a letter to his staff he admitted that the centre needed ‘improvements’ after investigations found that staff had been paid less than the minimum wage and ambulances had been called to the complex 76 times in two years as staff were ‘too scared’ to call in sick. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Directors at retailer Game have urged shareholders to accept a £52m takeover offer from Sports Direct, saying they intended to sell their own shares to Mike Ashley’s company.

Game previously recommended the offer of 30p per share, which it said was “fair and reasonable”.

The bid came after Ashley’s sportswear chain upped its stake in the gaming retailer, forcing a mandatory takeover offer.

In its response, Game said the deal will help drive growth in its esports initiative Belong Gaming Arenas.

“The Game directors unanimously recommend that Game shareholders accept the mandatory offer, as those Game directors who hold Game shares intend to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings of Game shares,” the company said in a filing.

The mandatory offer will close on 11 July, with payment to shareholders due by 25 July.

The acquisition will be the latest in a spate of buyouts by the retail tycoon, who snapped up House of Fraser and Evans Cycles last year.

But Ashley suffered a heavy blow earlier this year when his stake of almost 30 per cent in Debenhams was wiped out after the department store fell into administration.

At the time of making the offer, Sports Direct said it did not believe Game could “weather the pressures that it is facing” as a standalone business.

“Sports Direct believes that the offer, in providing Game with the wider benefit of Sports Direct’s operating and other experience and increased support, will secure Game’s future and allow it to navigate these pressures,” the firm said.