The British retail group JD Sports Fashion Plc announced on Friday that it intends to fully take over its Spanish subsidiary Iberian Sports Retail Group SL.
As part of the reform of its shareholding structures announced in May, the group intends to acquire the shares of the previous minority shareholders Balaiko Firaja Invest SL and Sonae Holdings SA for a total of EUR 500.1 million, according to a statement. The transaction is expected to be completed in October.
Balaiko and Sonae currently hold a total of 49.98 percent of the shares in the Iberian Sports Retail Group, which operates more than 460 stores for the retail chains Sprinter, Sport Zone, Aktiensport and Perry Sport in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. The group is also the majority owner of the sporting goods suppliers Deporvillage and Bodytone.
According to JD Sports, the Iberian Sports Retail Group was able to achieve a sales increase of 19 percent to 1.24 billion euros in the 2022/23 financial year, which ended in January. Your profit before taxes rose by 32 percent to 96.6 million euros. The now-announced full takeover results in “considerable potential for further acceleration of growth,” said Régis Schultz, CEO of JD Sports, in a statement.
According to the group, there is an opportunity to further develop the Sprinter and Sport Zone formats. In addition, the Iberian Sports Retail Group team is said to play an “important role” in the expansion of the JD Sports chain “in the Iberian Peninsula and beyond”.