Mike Ashley swoops on Hertfordshire retail park in cut-price deal

The billionaire, who has already swooped on ailing retailers including House of Fraser, Evans Cycles, Sofa.com and Jack Wills over the past two years, has tabled a bid for Brookfield Shopping Park.

According to Estates Gazette, Ashley has bid around £28m for the 90,000 sq ft destination in Cheshunt, which has an asking price of around £45m. His bid is also just a third of what current owner JP Morgan Asset Management paid for the retail park four years ago.

JP Morgan has been urged to sell up by its lender RBS, which financed the original acquisition with a £62.2m loan.

If the deal goes through, Ashley would become landlord to some big-name retailers including Next, Boots and, most intriguingly, his biggest high street rival, JD Sports.

Three of the 12 units at the park are currently vacant, while a fourth, operated by Arcadia’s Outfit fascia, is likely to close as part of the fashion group’s CVA.

Ashley has acquired retail parks before, using them to showcase Sports Direct’s growing stable of retailers, and he is likely to do the same at Brookfield.

But the prospect of another acquisition may not be met with a warm response from Sports Direct’s shareholders.

At the retailer’s AGM earlier this week, around a quarter of its independent investors voted against the re-election of Ashley as a director.

However, Ashley, who owns 62% of the business, was backed to continue in his role after gaining 90.9% of the overall shareholder vote.

Ashley has come under increasing pressure after admitting problems at House of Fraser were “terminal” and struggling to convince power brands such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour that his business is serious about rolling out its ‘elevation’ strategy, aimed at transforming Sports Direct into “the Selfridges of sport”.

It was also hit with a €674m (£605m) tax bill from Belgian authorities – a bombshell that it revealed at its half-year results last month.