Sports Direct makes £4m cash offer for Goals Soccer Centres

Sports Direct waded back into the takeover market on Monday with a discounted £4m cash offer to buy out scandal-hit Goals Soccer Centres.

The 5p-a-share offer from Mike Ashley's group, made on 5 September, is a massive cut from the £20m valuation when shares in the football centre operator were suspended in March. Sports Direct already holds a 19% stake in Goals.

Goals described the bid as "preliminary and highly caveated", adding that the two sides were in talks. Sports Direct has until October 21 to make an offer.

Goals faces cancellation from the Alternative Investment Market on September 30 after it uncovered a £12m scandal over possible mis-declaration of sales tax. Its former chief executive and finance director are now under investigation.

Goals put itself up for sale at the end of August but also reported that year-to-date sales across its 45 UK sites were up by 11.5% on a gross like-for-like basis since the start of 2019, while US gross like-for-like sales were up 14.5%.

Sports Direct shares were down 0.11% at 279.30p at 0809 BST.

(Writing by Frank Prenesti; Editing by Michele Maatouk and Josh White)