Sports Direct International (SDI) has parted ways with its three brokers and instead appointed Liberum Capital, a relatively small alternative, as its sole corporate broker earlier this week. The three brokers were Goldman Sachs, Citi and Haitong (formerly Espirito Santo). Liberum is one of the few brokerages with a “buy” rating for SDI. The Daily Telegraph reports that Goldman Sachs was picked as SDI's broker in 2013 and that Mike Ashley, the group's founder and chief executive, is understood to have been on friendly terms with Goldman Sachs' head of Europe. Michael Sherwood announced that he was leaving in November, about six months after he had to answer questions in the British parliament relating to the BHS debacle. Citi advised on SDI's stock market listing and Espirito Santo replaced Bank of America Merrill Lynch as broker in 2013. It remains unclear if these former partners were dumped by SDI or if any of them decided to quit, due to some unease in the City over alleged corporate governance issues at SDI. The Telegraph raised further questions by reporting that Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, the law firm finally picked by SDI to conduct a review of its corporate governance, has advised on its sale of assets related to the Dunlop brand.

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