Mike Ashley hands Sports Direct over to his prospective son-in-law as the City rolls its eyes

This may be the shape of things to come. The UK listing rules are being reformed to make Ashley-style antics easier for powerful business founders, writes James Moore

Quixotic billionaire Mike Ashley, founder of Sports Direct and current boss of Frasers Group (PA)

Michael Murray’s 2011 holiday was a vacation for the ages. In it, he not only reportedly met his fiance, he had his passport stamped with a visa facilitating entry into Britain’s exclusive multimillionaire CEO club.

Murray’s fiance is, you see, Anna Ashley. She is the daughter of Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, whose retail empire, under the banner of Frasers Group, the 31-year-old Murray is now “transitioning” to take over as CEO.

It has been quite a ride for the former nightclub promotor, who started off advising Ashley on property deals (his father is a property developer), rising to become the soon-to-be-former CEO’s right-hand man in charge of the overhaul of a store estate that had been looking decidedly shabby and was upsetting some of the external brands the group works with.