The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has cleared the purchase of 11.9 million JJB shares by Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, saying it does not represent a possible merger.

The stake, worth 4.7 per cent of JJB’s share capital ignited speculation that Ashley may have made a bid for the rival chain.

The OFT said it would examine whether a merger was on the cards and whether the potential merger would need to be referred to the Competition Commission.

In a statement the OFT said: “The OFT has decided, on the information currently available to it, that a relevant merger situation, under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002, has not been created.”

Topics