Just Champion! JD’s £15m Irish drive

BURY-based retail chain JD Sports Fashion has announced that it has bought Champion Sports Holdings for a nominal sum.

The conditional will involve JD advancing €17.1m (£14.75m) by way of a secured loan to help Champion clear its debts, excluding finance lease commitments worth a further €2.5m.

The deal is conditional based on the Irish Competition Authority agreeing to approve the deal.

Champion Sports was started in 1992 and is one of the biggest sports retail chains in Ireland with 22 stores.

The company is headquartered near Dublin and has sites in town centres and shopping centres across the Republic of Ireland, as well as one store in Northern Ireland.

JD said that the deal would provide a firmer foothold into the Irish market, where it currently has just eight stores. The company said that it intended to continue operating both brands moving forwards and would retain Champion’s management team headed by CEO John Quinn.

In the year to December 31, 2009, Champion Sports declared a pre-tax loss of €4.9m on turnover of €54.0m.

The firm has struggled in recent years due partly to the poor performance of the Irish economy and the ongoing high costs of leasing units which JD Sports Fashion said that it intended to address.

Despite this, JD Sports said that it believes the deal will be earnings enhancing following an investment in the stores and the “realisation of operational synergies” .

Peter Cowgill, executive chairman of JD, said: “We are very pleased to announce that we have exchanged contracts for the acquisition of Champion, which will give us an enhanced presence in the Republic of Ireland.

“By drawing on the current management team’s expertise and local knowledge, we are confident that this acquisition will bring financial benefits in the future.”