Mike Ashley, the billionaire founder of Sports Direct, has ruled out taking the sportswear retailer private after a second profits warning in three months wiped 25 per cent off its share price.

Sports Direct gave the warning as it announced its first full-year results after going public, which revealed that Mr Ashley is selling 35 properties back to the company for about £105 million.

Mr Ashley retained ownership of the 35 sites, including Sports Direct’s head office, after it floated in February. The stores pay rent equal to 5 per cent of each individual store’s turnover. The company said Mr Ashley is selling back the property to “avoid any future conflict of interest”.

Sports Direct is worth £1 billion, compared with its £2.1 billion valuation when its shares listed at 300p in February. They fell 48p to 142p yesterday.

Mr Ashley, who has a 57 per cent stake in the business, said yesterday he is committed to Sports Direct remaining a public company in the “long term”. Asked if he regretted taking it public, he said: “Do I find points and processes of that quite painful? The answer is yes. I was not up to speed on what I thought it would entail.”

Mr Ashley said he had been “naive” about what was required in communicating with investors, but denied culpability for the falling shares, branding the current price as “absolutely potty”.

The company will now buy back up to 10 per cent of its shares.

Sports Direct is still searching for a non-executive chairman after David Richardson’s departure in June.

Simon Bentley, Sports Direct’s senior independent director who is acting as interim non-executive chairman, said progress on filling the role is expected by September or October.

The company said yesterday there would be “limited growth” on earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation that reached £191 million in the year to April 29. Sports Direct first warned on profits in April.

Pre-tax profits for the year fell by 37.2 per cent to £60.4 million while revenues increased 12.8 per cent to £1.3 billion. The company will pay a dividend of 1.03p per share.

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