Sports Direct lowers full-year earnings outlook

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Sports Direct, Britain's biggest sportswear retailer, said on Wednesday it expected its full-year core earnings to come in at or around the bottom of a previously announced range.

The group released the one line statement after its deputy chairman Mike Ashley, who holds 55 percent of its equity, said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday that its profits would fall, prompting the company's shares to slump.

"Sports Direct wishes to clarify that its current expectations for adjusted underlying EBITDA (before share scheme costs) for the full year to the end of April 2016 are at or around the bottom of the range announced on 8 January 2016," it said.

The retailer had provided guidance in January for a range of 380-420 million pounds for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

(Reporting by Kate Holton. Editing by Jane Merriman)