Mike Ashley today insisted he had no plans to take his Sports Direct empire back into the private sector and urged shareholders to “hang on” as the retailer revealed a sharp fall in half-year profits.

In his most animated briefing since Sports Direct floated in February, the tycoon blamed the group’s dismal year on “three train wrecks” and said the shares should be worth 800p, nearly ten times the closing price last night.

He said: “We are in no way a broken business.”

The comments came as Sports Direct posted half-year results that showed underlying earnings tumbled 35 per cent to £52 million in the 26 weeeks to October 28.

Pre-tax profits plunged 70 per cent to £20.1 million on revenue of £668.1 million, down 7.1 per cent.

Mr Ashley blamed the slump on the dismal summer, the England football team’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008 and the tough Christmas trading.

However, he said Sports Direct had still managed to increase gross margins, by 220 basis points, and expected to beat current market forecasts for the full-year. He insisted the results showed the “resilience” of the business model.

The confident outlook helped to push Sports Direct’s shares up 14.75p or nearly 18 per cent to 99p. They have crashed more than 70 per cent since listing at 300p at the end of February.

Mr Ashley said: “We’ve had three train wrecks. The weather, England being smashed out of Euro 2008 and this Christmas has been very tough.

“So we have a broken nose, broken arm and a broken leg, but we are still going to get on the train and get to our destination.

“My message to shareholders is you've got to hang on. We couldn’t have had a worse start, there’s no doubt about that. It can’t get any worse, the only way is up.”

Mr Ashley sold a 43 per cent stake in the business at the time of the float. His remaining 57 per cent stake has since increased to nearly 68 per cent through a series of share buybacks that have fuelled widespread speculation over his real intentions.

Today, the company gained shareholder approval to extend the buyback programme at an extraordinary general meeting. No other investor turned up to vote.

The move will see Mr Ashley’s stake rise to 72 per cent yet he denied accusations of “creeping control”.

“I can only respond by saying I have no current intention of taking the company private,” he said.

He added that he had thought about giving a promise that Sports Direct would remain public until at least March 2009, when he is next able to sell shares in the company, in a bid to end speculation.

However he added that the idea was binned given fears it would only spark yet more speculation about what would happen after that date.

He said that he had never seriously thought about taking Sports Direct back into the private sector despite the wall of criticism over the group’s trading performance and corporate governance failings this year.

The group still has to appoint a non-executive chairman and admitted today that it has no idea when an appointment will be made.

Philip Dorgan, the veteran retail analyst at Panmure Gordon, described the results as “terrible” but moved his recommendation from sell to hold given they were likely to benefit from a short-term rally.

He added: “Mike Ashley is a good operator and knows the business back to front.

“But I’m a simple soul, I look at it and the accounts say profits fell to £21 million from £70 million last year. There doesn’t look to be much resilience there to me.”

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