Sports Direct shares drop as founder says profits to fall

Shares in Sports Direct, Britain's biggest sportswear retailer, fell up to 5.9 percent on Tuesday after its founder told a newspaper the company's profits would fall this year.

Mike Ashley, who is deputy chairman of Sports Direct and holds 55 percent of its equity, told The Times: “We are in trouble, we are not trading very well. We can’t make the same profit we made last year."

Sports Direct made core earnings of 383.2 million pounds in the year to April 26, 2015.

Its latest forecast for the 2015-16 year was issued in January when it said it was no longer confident of meeting its core earnings target of 420 million pounds, guiding to a range of 380-420 million pounds.

"You might have expected an announcement this morning from Sports Direct revising down their profit guidance, but no such announcement has yet been forthcoming," said independent retail analyst Nick Bubb.

Sports Direct was not immediately available to comment.

Shares in the firm have fallen 38 percent over the last year and earlier this month lost their place in Britain's FTSE 100 index of blue chip companies.

They were down 20.3 pence at 403.2 pence at 0923 GMT, valuing the business at 2.43 billion pounds.

Sports Direct has been under fire from media, investors and politicians over its working practices.

On Monday, Ashley said he would refuse to face British lawmakers in parliament to answer questions about the treatment of workers.