Sports Direct enjoys surge in sales and profits

Dave Forsey, chief executive and Mr Ashley's right-hand man, said Sports Direct has "outperformed" market.

Mr Forsey said Sports Direct had also performed in-line with expectations in recent weeks, despite England's early exit from the World Cup.

He added: "Overall trading since the year end has been in line with management's expectations with some stronger weeks offset by England's disappointing World Cup matches.

"Consistent with previous guidance, we continue to target underlying EBITDA, before share scheme costs, of £360m for the current period."

Mr Ashley owns 58pc of Sports Direct and serves as the executive deputy chairman,

On Wednesday, Mr Ashley announced he does not want shares from the bonus scheme after discussions with the remuneration committee.

The Newcastle United owner has also told the board of Sports Direct that he "does not expect any other share based incentive scheme to be proposed to shareholders" until the end of the new share scheme in 2019.

Under the scheme, 25m shares were to be issued to Mr Ashley, Sports Direct executives, and roughly 3,000 staff.

The statement from Sports Direct was a huge surprise given that Mr Ashley has attempted to win approval for a bonus pay-out on three separate occasion.

The most recent attempt was approved earlier this month despite fury among shareholders that Sports Direct did not clarify how the shares would be allocated.

Mr Ashley is not paid a salary by the company but has raised hundreds of millions of pounds by selling shares.

The announcement raises the prospect that Mr Ashley could look to sell more Sports Direct shares, or start to pay a dividend.

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