Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley leaves the Red Lion pub in Westminster
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Mike Ashley, the sports-loving, big-drinking billionaire behind the U.K.’s Frasers Group retail empire, has announced plans to step aside and pass leadership to one Michael Murray, currently the group’s “head of elevation” who is also reportedly engaged to Ashley’s daughter, Anna.
The company said in a statement Thursday that Ashley, who is 57 years old, will walk away as CEO of the $4.3 billion (market cap) empire—which he founded in 1982—on May 1 next year.
Incoming CEO Murray, who is not on the board and remains a new name for shareholders, will take control of a U.K.-based retail group that includes bargain superstore Sports Direct, department store House of Fraser, Evans Cycles, designer retailer Flannels and Game, the U.K.’s equivalent of GameStop.
The statement added that Murray, age 31, would lead the group forward “on this increasingly…