Mike Ashley's Sports Direct on track for 'at least' full year profit target

Budget sports retailer group Sports Direct has posted an 11% rise in pre-tax profit for its half year results and has said it remains on track to "at least" achieve its full-year profit target.

Despite England's early exit from the World Cup, the Mike Ashley-founded company saw its earnings before interest and tax rise by 10.8% to £203.1m, leaving it in a strong position to reach its full year goal of pre-tax profits of £360m.

Total sales were up by 6.5% to give it a group revenue of £1.4bn in the six months leading to 26 October.

Dave Forsey, chief executive of Sports Direct, said: "The results for the six months were solid considering the adverse impact on performance during the period of England's early departure from the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

He said the company was "confident of achieving at least our full year internal underlying EBITDA target of £360m".

The positive results were not enough to boost the company's shares however as they remained relatively unchanged in early morning trading and stand at 675.00p.