(Reuters) - British retail tycoon Mike Ashley's Sports Direct has made an offer to buy cafe chain owner Patisserie Holdings out of administration to add to an empire stretching from department stores and sofa shops to lingerie.
Sports Direct said in a statement on Friday it had offered to buy the owner of cake specialist Patisserie Valerie, which was plunged into crisis in October after it uncovered accounting irregularities.
The statement did not give any details on the offer, and neither Sports Direct nor Patisserie Holdings' administrators, KPMG, were immediately available to comment.
Ashley, who also owns English Premier League football club Newcastle United, made his name building budget chain Sports Direct into Britain's biggest sporting goods retailer.
He has more recently bought stakes and assets from troubled retail businesses including department store groups Debenhams and House of Fraser, and home furnishings firm Sofa.com.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Writing by Mark Potter; Editing by Louise Heavens and Alexander Smith)