Administrators take Ashley's stake.NEWCASTLE United owner Mike Ashley's retail company Sports Direct has lost its 29% stake in outdoor chain Blacks Leisure after administrators of failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (KSF KSF Knowledge & Skills Framework KSF Key Success Factors KSF Korea Science Foundation KSF Kassel Germany (airport code) KSF Key Skills Framework KSF Kanawha State Forest (West Virginia) ) took control of the holding. The announcement by Blacks Leisure comes after JD Sports JD Sports, part of the John David Group and now more commonly known as just 'JD', is a sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, England with shops throughout the UK. Fashion said this week that Sports Direct's 11% stake in it had also passed to KSF. Sports Direct, owner of the Sports World Sports World are a British sports Retailer, formerly called Sports Soccer. Founded in the late 1970's by former county squash coach Mike Ashley, the group Sports World International is now the UK's largest retailer of sports clothing and accessories. chain, had fought a legal battle with administrators over the stakes, which were partly financed by the bank. It has already taken a pounds 53.1m hit in its annual results over the shares after conceding con·cede v. con·ced·ed, con·ced·ing, con·cedes v.tr. 1. To acknowledge, often reluctantly, as being true, just, or proper; admit. See Synonyms at acknowledge. 2. that it did not control the shares for accounting purposes. Sports Direct has reined in its policy of "strategic investment" since recession struck, although it believes the stakes can be beneficial "in the right circumstances CIRCUMSTANCES, evidence. The particulars which accompany a fact. 2. The facts proved are either possible or impossible, ordinary and probable, or extraordinary and improbable, recent or ancient; they may have happened near us, or afar off; they are public or ". The company's stake-building is competing for cash with other priorities, such as cutting debts, which stood at pounds 431m as of the end of April. The stake in Blacks Leisure is worth around pounds 3.6m at current prices. Ashley reportedly made an approach to buy the entire business earlier this year and in 2007 threatened to remove the company's board over plans to sell the its Freespirit boardwear business. Blacks is struggling to secure its financial future after warning it would breach its lending terms after a sudden trading downturn. The firm agreed a pounds 40m facility with Lloyds in July but has embarked on a restructuring restructuring - The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behaviour (functionality and semantics). of the business. The group - which operates 256 Millets shops and 116 Blacks Outdoor outlets - also warned that 50 roles at its head office in Northampton were likely to go and announced plans to close 89 stores. |
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