Sports Direct cries 'fake news' at PIRC pay criticism

In a manner akin to a Donald Trump tweet, Sports Direct International has dismissed as "fake news" a critical report about its pay structure from an influential corporate governance body.

Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), the shareholder representative body in question, said the retail run by Mike Ashley had a pay ratio between its chief executive and average employee of 400:1, the second highest in the FTSE 350.

Sports Direct claimed the observation was skewed by a hypothetical bonus for former CEO Dave Forsey.

Ashley's spokesman Keith Bishop raged that “This is fake news that appears to have been either deliberately or recklessly circulated by an irresponsible organisation that is making headlines at the expense of Sports Direct.

The company has contacted PIRC to request a copy of the report and said it would also be "writing to them to express our disappointment".

Bishop explicitly stressed that it was "incorrect to state that Sports Direct has the second-highest ratio of chief executive-to-average employee pay".

This, the company presumed, was because the "incorrect data" was based on an unvested bonus entitlement accrued by Forsey over several years.

Forsey chose to forego the bonus, so it was never paid, the company said.

Excluding this, Sports Direct felt the ratio would be closer to 9:1.

The regulatory news statement finished, with a flourish, that "the company's current chief executive, Mike Ashley, does not draw a salary, and never has".

Independent analyst Nick Bubb's pithy comment was that the statement was "bizarre" and brought to mind Kenneth Williams line in Carry on Cleo: "Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me."