Since leaving his school in 1982, Michael James Wallace Mike Ashley popularly known as Michael Ashley has successfully built up his business empire ranking him the No. 10th billionaires in the United Kingdom while the business tycoon Michael grips the 318th rank on the globe backed by a net worth of $ 3.6 billion +. The British Business tycoon’s major area of business is the major sportswear retail chain, in addition to, after buying the club Newcastle, paying roughly £135 million, now he is the owner of this famed European club.
Beginning his professional career as a squash player and later (due to an injury) as a country level squash coach, in 1984, Michael Ashley inaugurated his foremost Sport and Ski Shopping point in Maidenhead. Subsequently, the ambitious guy took a loan £10,000 from his family and opened a few more shops in London and in its surrounding areas. With the rapid expansion of his retail chain, by the late ‘90s Michael planned to rebrand the Chain Sports Soccer and eventually founded Sports Direct International Plc. As of now, with its headquarters in SHIREBROOK, Mansfield and Derbyshire the limited liability company is equipped with above 20000 employees and having 400+ stores in UK, Ireland, Slovenia, and Belgium.
Among the major brands bought by Michael Ashley include, Dunlop Slazenger brand in 2003 for £40 million, Gear Manufacturing company KARRIMOR in 2003, Boxing brand Lonsdale, KANGOL and DONNAY apart from a major stake in UMBRO by paying £9 million. Out of different sources the Guardian group finds that Ashley’s empire holds an ample collection of assets in terms of property, shareholdings and brand holdings aside from Newcastle United and Sports Direct. He has been registered as director in above 200 companies including the major Mash Holdings Ltd. The name of the company comes out of his first name’s abbreviation.
Michael Ashley holds 29.4% stake in Blacks Leisure Enterprises Group, 19% stake of JD Sports and also the owner of Millets and Mambo. Ashley also holds 8.92% stake in Scottish football club-Rangers. In the recent years, Ashley has sold his Forge Retail Park in Glasgow by making a deal worth of £84 million. The English business tycoon also owns 50% stake out of a venture Ashleigh Property Holdings Ltd where Douglas Leigh has co-partnership with Ashley. He is the owner of another major aviation company named Mash Aviation Limited, which basically offers him helicopter services. Ashley mostly uses the AGUSTAWESTLAND AW109 helicopter for travelling between his home and Derbyshire, where headquarter of Sports Direct is located.
Michael Ashley was born in 1964 and brought up in Burnham, Buckinghamshire together with his parents. He completed his school degrees from Burnham Grammar School. Ashley married Linda Jerlmyr, a Swedish-born graduate in Economics in 1988. He has three children named Matilda, Anna and Oliver. Ashley prefers donning casual dress like shirts and chinos most of the time while he gets pleasure to live along in his big house located in Hertfordshire village. Ashley now resides in his huge apartment located in the affluent locality Totteridge in north London. Other than this, in Verbier, he has two wonderful ski chalets country houses. He is a passionate skier.