JD Sports enters US market with $558m deal

JD Sports will make its US market debut after agreeing to buy up American sportswear company Finish Line in a “transformational” $558 million (£396m) deal.

It will mean taking over 556 Finish Line branded retail stores across 44 US states and Puerto Rico, where it employs 3,700 full-time and 9,300 part-time staff.

While the outlets are expected to stay under Finish Line branding, JD is planning to trial a number of its own stores across the US following the acquisition.

JD’s executive chairman Peter Cowgill said: “We are extremely excited to be joining up with Finish Line, a wellestablished US operator.

“The acquisition represents an excellent opportunity for JD to establish its market leading multi-brand proposition in the world’s largest athleisure market.

“It immediately offers a major presence in the US, a clear next step to further increase our global scale.”

He added: “This is a landmark day for JD and will be transformational for the business.”

JD will also benefit from Finish Line’s relationship with Macy’s, serving as its exclusive retailer of athletic shoes both online and in-store where it operates 375 branded and 188 unbranded concessions.

The Nasdaq-listed firm reported revenues of $1.84 billion (£1.3bn) for the year to March 3 2018, in line with sales a year earlier when pre-tax profits totalled $54m (£38m).

The deal, which values Finish Line above its market cap of around $425m (£301m), is expected to make a “small incremental positive contribution” to JD’s results and earnings per share in the current financial year which runs to February 2019.

Finish Line’s executive team will be kept on following the takeover.

Finish Line chief executive Sam Sato said: “Finish Line has long admired JD and their commitment to serve customers with premium brands.”

JD Sports has made a deal to buy US firm Finish Line.