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Sports retailer Sports Direct said that it was not planing to close a large number of House of Fraser stores in the new year and was 'working rapidly' on an investment plan for the department store business.
The Sunday Telegraph had reported that Sports Direct was planning to shut almost all House of Fraser stores after the Christmas shopping period.
In a statement disputing that report, Sports Direct said it had entered into new leases on the majority of House of Fraser stores.
Sports direct said that leases it was surrendering mentioned in an EY report related to leases between landlords and the 'old' House of Fraser company, and had nothing to do with Sports Direct Group, including the new House of Fraser.
'The EY report relates to an entirely different company,' Sports Direct said.
'Sports Direct continues to work with landlords across the whole of the remaining House of Fraser estate.'
'As a result of this erroneous misreading of the administrators report from EY, staff across the House of Fraser group have today woken up to a false sense of job insecurity.'
'Sports Direct is working rapidly on our ongoing investment programme with the House of Fraser brand and it is therefore totally incorrect to assume that there will be large numbers of store closures in the new year.'
'We are taking legal advice with regards to this unbelievable level of misreporting.'
At 1:06pm: (LON:SPD) Sports Direct International PLC share price was -3p at 281.8p