Just a few weeks after Mike Ashley took over from Dave Forsey as chief executive of Sports Direct International (SDI), the British sports retailer said its acting chief financial officer is leaving the group. The owner of Field & Trek, as well as Karrimor, Gelert and various other brands, has been under the spotlight in the last months for issues ranging from working conditions at its warehouse to profit warnings and corporate governance – including the fact that it hasn't had a permanent CFO since the departure of Bob Mellors in 2013. Pearson has been at SDI for more than nine years, and he became interim CFO in June 2015. SDI said he was leaving for another job. However, some newspapers pointed out that Pearson's departure comes a few days after a currency hedging deal caused another profit warning at SDI. The retailer warned that the extreme swings in the exchange rate of the pound against the dollar would result in an immediate hit of £15 million (€16.8m-$18.4m) to its adjusted Ebitda target – and if the exchange rate remains at about $1.20 for the remainder of the fiscal year, until April 2017, it could take another hit of £20 million (€22.4m-$24.5m). Pearson is to remain with the sports retailer until the end of December. SDI has appointed Herbert Monteith, a long-standing member of the finance team, to become interim head of finance, which is not a board position.

Topics