JD Sports Suffers Loss On Footasylum Sale
British sportswear chain JD Sports has been forced to sell Footasylum for £37.5m, after buying the retailer for £90m in 2019.
JD Sports, which has over 900 stores across 21 countries, selling brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma has been forced to sell the business after the takeover was blocked by the UK’s competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had ruled the merger could lead to less choice and a “worse deal” for customers.
The business has been sold to European private equity firm Aurelius, which owns a number of UK businesses, including Lloyds Pharmacy.
The news brings to an end a turbulent three years for the two businesses. JD Sports and Footasylum were fined almost £4.7m by the CMA for sharing commercially sensitive information during its investigation which resulted in former JD Sports Executive Chairman Peter Cowgill resigning from the company in May.
The CMA found that during two separate meeting in 2021 Cowgill had exchanged commercially sensitive information with Footasylum boss Barry Brown and then failed to alert the regulator.
It said neither men could provide documentation around the meetings, with “no notes, no agendas, no emails and poor phone records, some of which were deleted before they could be given to the CMA”.
JD Sports admitted to “inadvertently” breaking the rules, before confirmation of the Footasylum sale.
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