Strong sales at UK sportswear retailer Sports Direct have led it to raise its earnings targets and increase the size of a payout to founder Mike Ashley.
Ashley could receive up to 8m shares, valued at GBP22.8m (US$36.7m) at the closing price on Tuesday (24 April), if the company reaches a group underlying EBITDA target of GBP340m in the 2015 financial year. He will only receive the shares if the group also meets a series of increased earnings goals of GBP270 and GBP290 in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
“The group has continued to deliver strong growth during February and March, outperforming management’s expectations,” said chief executive Dave Forsey.
“This performance continues to be primarily through the UK division where online sales now represent an even larger proportion of our total retail sales than envisaged.”
In the nine weeks to 25 March, group sales increased 13.2% to GBP267.6m, while gross profit increased 1.5% to GBP99.8m. Revenues in the retail division were up 16.1% to GBP232.6m, as retail gross profit rose 15.1% to GBP85.4m.
The company affirmed that it is now certain of reaching the super-stretch target of GBP225m EBITDA for the full-year.
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