Mike Ashley Net Worth 2025

What is Mike Ashley net worth 2025?

Michael James Wallace Ashley is a British retail entrepreneur who is the founder and former chief executive of Frasers Group plc.

Net Worth	$2.6 billion
Full Name	Michael James Wallace Ashley
Date of Birth	9 September 1964
Occupation	Retail entrepreneur
Nationality	British

Mike Ashley net worth

Mike Ashley net worth 2025: Michael James Wallace Ashley  is a British billionaire retail entrepreneur focused in the sporting goods market, and the chief executive of Frasers Group Plc. He is also the owner of Newcastle United football club having bought it for £135 million in 2007. Mike Ashley net worth is $2.6 billion.

Early Life

Mike Ashley was born on 9 September 1964 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England. He was educated at Burnham Grammar School.

n 1988 aged 24, he married Linda Jerlmyr, a Swedish-born economics graduate, and the couple have three children. The couple quietly divorced in 2003, culminating in one of the biggest settlements in British legal history, with Ashley reportedly handing over the family home, multiple properties and assets with a total worth of £50m.

Read Andrea Agnelli net worth

Ashley is protective of his private life. He is known to prefer casual dress of shirt and chinos or a track suit rather than a suit, and often carries his essential business tool of a mobile phone in a plastic carrier bag rather than a briefcase.

Ownerships

After leaving school at 16, he was a county-level squash player. But after injury, he became a county-level squash coach. In 1982, Ashley opened his first sport and ski shop in Maidenhead followed by others in and around London, starting with a £10,000 loan from his family.

The chain expanded quickly funded by private money, and by the late 1990s had rebranded the chain as Sports Soccer and opened over 100 stores across the United Kingdom. 

At present Derbyshire based group Sports Direct International Plc, with headquarters in Shirebrook, has over 400 UK stores including the chains Sports World, Lillywhites and Gilesports.

Read Tom Werner net worth

The group employs more than 20,000 people in the UK and at stores in Ireland, Belgium and Slovenia. In 2006, it overtook JJB Sports as the UK’s largest sportswear retailer.

In mid-2006, it was also revealed that Ashley had held talks with John Hargreaves, founder of Matalan on both taking a 25% stake in the retail business and installing mezzanine floors in larger Matalan stores, on which Sports World outlets could be operated.

Ashley has made his money by buying brands. The first major brand he bought was Donnay. In February 2003, Ashley bought the Dunlop Slazenger brand for £40 million, followed up by acquiring outdoor gear manufacturer Karrimor in March 2003, Kangol for £10 million, boxing brand Lonsdale, most of these brands were bought from distressed sellers. After considering a takeover, Ashley took a £9 million stake and signed a long-term deal with Umbro.

Ashley has a 29.4% stake in Blacks Leisure Group, the owner of Millets and Mambo, and is thought to hold stakes in JJB Sports and 19% of JD Sports. “He likes to park his tanks on peoples’ lawns”, said one banker.

In late November 2006, a number of business newspapers reported that Ashley was looking at an IPO of Sports World International. He hired Merrill Lynch, who initially valued the group at up to £2.5bn ahead of the flotation on the London Stock Exchange.

Newcastle United

On 23 May 2007, in a surprise move, Ashley bought Sir John Hall’s 41.6% stake in Newcastle United at one pound per share, for a total cost of £55,342,223 via his company St James Holdings Ltd. Under the terms of UK takeover law, having purchased more than 30% of a listed company, he was obliged to make an offer to buy the remaining shares at the same or a greater price.

 On 31 May, it was reported that the Newcastle board were considering Ashley’s offer. On 7 June, it was confirmed that chairman Freddy Shepherd had agreed to sell his 28% share to Ashley, which left Ashley free to take control of the club.

Ashley owns a 77.06% stake in Newcastle United, on course to withdraw the club from the stock exchange having surpassed the 75% threshold required. 100% acquisition was achieved in July with Ashley paying a total of around £134 million to buy the club.

Read Ivan Gazidis net worth

Ashley appeared to have saved the club from certain financial ruin by paying off large sums of debt inherited from the previous regime, although he was criticised for not doing due diligence when buying the club, as he subsequently revealed he had been unaware of issues such as the upfront payment of club finances such as the Northern Rock sponsorship, and the presence of outstanding liabilities for long past player transfers.

Mike Ashley Net Worth

Mike Ashley net worth 2025 is $2.6 billion.  Ashley’s Fraser Group purchased assets from the gym and fitness chain DW Sports, in a deal worth up to £44 million. The group initially bought 46 leisure clubs and 31 retail outlets from DW Sports Fitness for £37 million to merge with its own business.