It's more bad news for Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct (SPD). The discount sporting goods chain has suffered another run of bad press headlines, culminating in a call from the Investor Forum - a body formed two years ago to represent the interests of institutional investors - for a full-scale independent review into the company's corporate governance policies and practices. The forum wants the review to be launched at the company's AGM on 7 September.
The forum said it had been facilitating "collective shareholder engagement" between some of its members (which include asset managers, insurers and pension funds) and the Sports Direct board for "an extended period of time". But the group was clear that a review must be independent and cover all aspects of corporate governance across the business, "not only employment practices." It said the current review by solicitors RPC, which Sports Direct has a pre-existing relationship with, was limited to employment practices and not sufficiently independent.
Governance failings at the group are "clearly resulting" in declines in operating performance, said the investors, adding it had made public its recommendations given the broader impact on all stakeholders.
