City round-up: JD Sports; Redx Pharma; Pebble Group
Bury-based sports and athleisurewear group JD Sports Fashion has sold a company in the Netherlands in a deal expected to realise €16.5m on completion, which is expected to be June 30.
JD said it agreed the deal yesterday (June 2) to dispose of Sports Unlimited Retail BV (SUR), which operates under the Aktiesport and Perry Sport fascias, to Iberian Sports Retail Group SL, its 50.02% subsidiary based in Spain.
The rationale for the transaction is that ISRG is more focused on the sporting goods sector than the core JD brand and, therefore, JD feel that the management team of ISRG will be better placed to drive growth and higher returns in SUR longer term. However, as the parent to ISRG, JD will continue to make strategic decisions regarding the company’s future.
JD Sports executive chairman, Peter Cowgill, said: “We have an excellent management team at ISRG and, having successfully integrated the Sport Zone business into its operations, this is the right time for ISRG to further expand its geographical reach.
“By consolidating our sporting goods businesses under the ISRG umbrella, we are absolutely confident that the transfer of SUR to ISRG will bring long term development opportunities to both the team at SUR and their international brand partners.”
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Lisa Anson
Cheshire drugs discovery group Redx Pharma revealed today that the first subject has been dosed in a Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers evaluating its lead fibrosis drug candidate, RXC007.
The company, which is focused on cancer and fibrosis treatments, said the primary objective of this first-in-human study is to evaluate the safety profile of this orally bioavailable, small molecule. Results from the study are expected to be available in the first half of 2022.
Chief executive, Lisa Anson, said: “Today’s news announcing the start of our first clinical study with RXC007 is an important milestone for Redx. This is the company’s first clinical fibrosis programme and means we now have two wholly-owned products in clinical development.
“RXC007 is also the third molecule discovered by the company to enter the clinic, providing significant validation of our in-house medicinal chemistry and drug discovery expertise. We believe there is enormous potential for RXC007 to treat multiple fibrotic diseases and we will initially focus on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a severe and life-threatening chronic lung condition with very poor prognosis and limited treatment options.”
Richard Armer, chief scientific officer, said: “We are excited about the potential of RXC007. The chemistry surrounding ROCK2 is complex and historically the identification of safe and effective selective inhibitors has proved challenging. Using our distinctive and proven approach the Redx team has been able to generate what we believe will be a ‘best-in-class’ treatment for this unmet medical need.”
IPF has an addressable market opportunity estimated to be worth $3.6bn by 2029.
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Pebble
Pebble Group, the Stretford-based corporate promotions specialist, said the positive start to its new financial year has continued, with the business performing well and in line with management expectations.
In an update ahead of its annual general meeting later today, it said Facilisgroup is developing as anticipated and is on track to meet aspirations of $50m recurring revenue by the end of 2024.
Partner (customer) numbers now total 186, compared with 175 at December 31, 2020, with a further four contracted and awaiting implementation
Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) processed through Pebble Group’s technology is in line with expectation. For the five months to May 2021, GMV is 78% of 2020, a period when a number of the group’s partners processed a high value of PPE sales. Positively, GMV is 116% of the same period in 2019, an important indicator demonstrating the strong recovery of like-for-like partner sales together with the increase in partner numbers
Preferred supplier purchases made by partners have increased and are, as anticipated, moving back towards the pre-COVID-19 percentage levels of 2019 of circa 45%.
Brand Addition’s order intake for 2021 has been strong. In the five months to the end of May 2021, total sales orders invoiced or received are £64.8m, an increase of 62% compared with 2020 and an increase of 28% compared with 2019, a period before any sales impact resulting from COVID-19.
In the corporate programmes division – representing around 60% of fiscal year 2020 divisional revenues – order intake to date is well ahead of 2020, when, in April and May 2020, initial lockdowns severely affected sales. Comparing with 2019, like-for-like order intake is recovering. New clients won in 2020 are performing well and in line with expectation.
The consumer promotions division – representing around 40% of 2020 divisional revenues – has benefited from a significant increase in sales orders, as existing clients have consolidated their spend across geographies using Brand Addition as a preferred and trusted supplier. Pebble said, to provide some context of recent trading, total Brand Addition sales order intake in the month of May 2021 was 115% of May 2019.
It said the value of Brand Addition orders received to date and the current activity level is encouraging and stay consistent with the previous messaging of targeting a return towards 2019 revenues in 2021.
The company statement said: “The board remains excited in the prospects for the group and looks forward to fully updating shareholders on its progress when issuing the half yearly results for the six months to June 30, 2021, on September 7.”
