Last checked at 7 Oct 2019 10:46
Date: 7 October 2019
SPORTS DIRECT INTERNATIONAL PLC
("Sports Direct" or the "Company")
Media Statement
Sports Direct wishes to correct statements made in the press initially by the Sunday Telegraph and now more widely reported by other news outlets relating to House of Fraser Stores.
The Telegraph article refers to "fresh papers from administrators EY", which is the progress report for the administration of HFL Realisations Limited (formerly House of Fraser Limited, which went into administration in 2018). This refers to a number of leases being surrendered for £nil and a small number of property leases remaining to be dealt with. Please note that the surrenders relate to the leases between the landlords and the old House of Fraser company and have nothing to do with the Sports Direct Group including the new House of Fraser Limited.
Sports Direct has entered into new leases on the majority of House of Fraser stores. The EY report relates to an entirely different company. Sports Direct continues to work with landlords across the whole of the remaining House of Fraser estate.
As a result of this erroneous misreading of the administrators report from EY, staff across the HoF group have today woken up to a false sense of job insecurity. Sports Direct is working rapidly on our ongoing investment programme with the HoF brand and it is therefore totally incorrect to assume that there will be large numbers of store closures in the new year. We are taking legal advice with regards to this unbelievable level of misreporting.
Ends
Sports Direct International plc Tom Piper, Company Secretary | T. 0344 245 9200 E. investor.relations@sportsdirect.com |