A City trader who witnessed Sports Direct billionaire Mike Ashley allegedly agree to pay a banker £15m during a boozy session in a London pub has dismissed the claimed deal as “just a laugh in a pub”.
Simon McEvoy said he “just could not believe” Ashley’s former colleague Jeff Blue was attempting to force the sportswear tycoon to pay out millions on what he thought was “so obviously a joke” and “banter”.
“I knew that they [Blue’s lawyers] wanted to pursue Mike [Ashley] for what was supposedly an agreement, but to me was just a laugh in the pub,” McEvoy, a trader at Espirito Santo Investment Bank, told the high court on Wednesday. “To me it was ludicrous, so it was obviously a joke.”
Blue is suing Ashley for £14m he claims Ashley owes him from the alleged deal sealed in the Horse & Groom pub in London’s Fitzrovia in 2013. He claims that Ashley agreed to pay him £15m if he could help double Sports Direct’s share price within three years. The shares did hit the £8-a-share target, and Blue was paid a £1m bonus but is pursuing Ashley for the claimed balance.
Ashley, who is due to give evidence on Wednesday afternoon, has dismissed Blue’s claims and said the conversation was just “banter”. In a statement, the sportswear tycoon said: “I can’t believe that [Mr Blue] is now trying to take me for £14m off the back of some drink banter that he is seeking to engineer into something more.”
Lawyers for Ashley told the court he could not remember details of the “banter and bravado” conversation in the pub, “particularly in the light of the amount of drinking”.
On Wednesday the case was moved into a larger court room at the high court due to the number of reporters turning up to hear Ashley’s evidence.
Blue is claiming that Ashley, who controls Sports Direct and Newcastle United, often conducts business in pubs, casinos and various other “unusual venues” while under the influence and the setting of the meeting should not invalidate the alleged deal.
McEvoy, who was one of a group of five people involved in the pub conversation in January 2013, said he did hear it suggested that Blue should be rewarded with the multimillion-pound bonus if Sports Direct shares hit £8. But he said “everyone burst out laughing, it was so clearly a joke”.
He said he could not believe it when Blue’s lawyers contacted him for his recollection of that evening. “I just could not believe that they were trying to pursue what happened in the pub, and therefore it was a waste of my time,” he said.
McEvoy denied the suggestion from Blue’s lawyer that he may be “expecting some sort of reward” from Ashley in return for his evidence.
A second broker present at the pub that night said he also recalled the conversation about Blue being rewarded if the shares hit £8 but thought it was a joke and didn’t think Ashley should have to pay.
“Why would Mike pay up for something that was banter,” Peter Tracey, who also worked at Espirito, told the court. “Why would you be held to a chat in the pub?”.
Tracey said it had been a great night and he wished those present in court could have been there. “It was five guys and a barman in the pub – I wish you could have been there it was a great night,” he said. “A billionaire owner of a football club talking about life – it was fascinating, it was great.
“There was a huge amount of laughter that night – it was a great evening. We had just spent a great deal of time discussing football transfers, and then the conversation went on to the reason we are here [in court]. And, if numbers were being thrown about it was frankly a bit surreal.”
Tracey said he didn’t make it home that night and “utilised the office sofabed and was woken up by a colleague the next morning”.
Earlier this week, Blue gave the court an extraordinary picture of Ashley’s working practices, including a claim that he would challenge subordinates to extreme drinking competitions that once ended with the 52-year-old billionaire vomiting into a fireplace.
Blue said the rules of the drinking game were that whoever left the room first was to be declared the loser. “After approximately 12 pints and chasers Pawel [Pawlowski] apologised profusely and had to excuse himself,” Blue said. “Mr Ashley then vomited into the fireplace located in the centre of the bar, to huge applause from his senior management team.”
Ashley was also alleged to have held regular senior management meetings during “lock-ins” at the Green Dragon pub in Alfreton near Sports Direct’s warehouse. During other meetings Ashley is alleged to have expressed his “boredom and frustration” with City figures by lying under the table to “have a nap”.
On another occasion Ashley and his senior Sports Direct colleagues drank the Michelin star restaurant Benares out of £3,000 bottles of red wine.
“Dinner was held in a private dining room at Benares restaurant at 12a Berkeley Square House,” Blue said in his witness statement. “The dinner commenced with Mr Ashley ordering ... drinks, in this case the most expensive red wine available from the sommelier (Richebourg at around some £3,000 per bottle).
“When supplies of this had been exhausted, Mr Ashley continued with the Penfolds Grange (£875 per bottle).
The case continues.
