• Sports Direct holds a 19% stake in Findel
  • Request follows speculation Sports Direct wanted to buy Findel’s Kitbag
  • Findel will contact shareholders and board will make its views known

 

Sports Direct has requested a general meeting be convened by home shopping group Findel to consider a director appointment.

The meeting has been demanded to consider the appointment as a director of Benjamin William Gardener. It is understood he would represent Sports Direct’s interests on the Findel board.

Sports Direct is able to require a meeting to be held because it has stake of almost 19% – far in excess of the 5% needed to make such a demand.

Findel said its board will write to shareholders “in due course to convene the general meeting and, as required, to set out the board’s views and recommendation”.

The development follows Sports Direct’s acquisition of a stake in Findel last autumn, when Findel said a buyer had been found for its Kitbag business.

There has been speculation that Sports Direct had wanted to buy Kitbag, and that its investment in Findel might be in order to stop the planned sale.

Sports Direct has taken strategic stakes in various retailers, such as Debenhams though, which it sells some of its products.

In such situations Sports Direct has previously said it would be a “supportive shareholder”.

 

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