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'Power drinker' Mike Ashley wins court battle over £15m boozy business deal made in pub

Investment banker Jeffrey Blue told a judge that Mr Ashley promised to pay him £15 million if he used his expertise to double Sports Direct’s share price to £8 a share (Nick Ansell/PA Wire)
Investment banker Jeffrey Blue told a judge that Mr Ashley promised to pay him £15 million if he used his expertise to double Sports Direct’s share price to £8 a share (Nick Ansell/PA Wire)

Newcastle United owner and Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley has won a High Court battle over an alleged £15m deal made with an investment banker in a London pub.

Ruling in Mr Ashley’s favour on Wednesday, the judge said no-one would have thought what was said in the pub was “serious”.

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Investment banker Jeffrey Blue had claimed that Mr Ashley promised to pay him £15 million if he used his expertise to double Sports Direct’s share price to £8 a share.

Mr Blue was seeking £14 million in damages from Mr Ashley but was only paid £1 million.

Mr Ashley denied the claim and said Mr Blue was talking ”nonsense”.

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The trial, which has been ongoing since early July, saw Mr Justice Leggatt hear about a dispute which centred on a conversation in the Horse and Groom pub four years ago.

Mr Blue told the judge that Mr Ashley was a ”serious businessman” adding that the work ethic at Sports Direct was ”like nothing else I have ever seen”.

However, he said Mr Ashley sometimes did business ”in unorthodox ways and in unusual venues”.

Jeffrey Blue told the court that Mr Ashley sometimes did business ”in unorthodox ways and in unusual venues” (Rex)
Jeffrey Blue told the court that Mr Ashley sometimes did business ”in unorthodox ways and in unusual venues” (Rex)

During the trial that Mr Ashley admitted that he “liked to get drunk” and calculated that he had consumed four to five pints during the hour-long meeting with Mr Blue at the London pub.

The court also hear from Barrister Jeffrey Chapman QC, who led Mr Blue’s legal team, that the Sports Direct boss would lie underneath tables in meetings he found to be boring to ‘take a nap’ and would lavishly entertain Sports Direct’s non-executive directors.

Mr Ashley was not in court to hear the judge deliver his ruling, but his lawyers said he had won a “comprehensive” victory.

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He said he had met Mr Blue and three other finance specialists at the pub and ”consumed a lot of alcohol”.

”I can’t remember the details of the conversations that we had in the pub as it was a heavy night of drinking,” Mr Ashley had said.

”I do remember that we had a lot of drinks and a lot of banter.

”If I did say to Mr Blue that I would pay him £15 million if he could increase (Sports Direct’s) share price to £8, it would be obvious to everyone, including Mr Blue, that I wasn’t being serious.”

He said he paid Mr Blue, who he called ”Jeffers”, £1 million for ”other deals” unrelated to the night in the Horse and Groom.

Mr Justice Leggatt told lawyers, at the end of the trial, that the case had been ”a lot more interesting than some”.

In a statement issued after the ruling, Mr Ashley said: “The only reason the Sports Direct share price exceeded £8.00, and will hopefully do so again, is because of the sterling efforts of all the people who work at Sports Direct.”