The sports retail group JD Sports Fashion PLC wants to sell its Dutch subsidiary Sports Unlimited Retail BV (SUR) to the Spanish joint venture Iberian Sports Retail Group SL. The group names a purchase price of EUR 16.5 million.
JD Sports Fashion Plc, British retailer of sports, fashion and outdoor brands, plans to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Sports Unlimited Retail BV (SUR), known in the Netherlands through the Aktiesport and Perry Sport chains, to the Divest Iberian Sports Retail Group SL (ISRG). The Spanish joint venture is also a 50.02 percent subsidiary of JD Sports Fashion.
As the reason for the transaction, the company states that ISRG is more focused on the sporting goods sector than the core brand JD. The British believe that ISRG’s management team will be better able to deliver growth and higher returns over the longer term. As the parent company of ISRG, JD Sports Fashion wants to continue to make strategic decisions about the future of the company. It is expected that upon completion of the transaction, consideration of EUR 16.5 million will be due, which the Spanish subsidiary intends to finance from existing cash and resources.
“We have an excellent management team at ISRG and after the successful integration of the Sport-Zone business, this is the right time for ISRG to further expand its geographic reach. By consolidating our sporting goods businesses under the umbrella of ISRG, we are absolutely confident that the Transferring SUR to ISRG will provide long-term development opportunities for both the SUR team and international brand partners, “said Peter Cowgill, Executive Chairman, of the sale.
The British group used the past year to expand worldwide and take over various sports retail chains. These included the chain store Livestock, with whose takeover JD Sports Fashion entered the Canadian market. In the USA, JD Sports Fashion bought the Shoe Palace chains with 167 stationary stores and DTLR with 247 stores. In Poland, the company took over 60 percent of the shares in Marketing Investment Group (MIG) in March of this year, which runs around 410 stationary stores in Central and Eastern Europe with its two chain stores 50 Style and Sizeer. In the past Corona year 2020, the British sports retail group recorded sales of GBP 6.167 billion (EUR 7.129 billion). The company is currently represented with around 2,450 stores worldwide.
–
