Sonae closes the merger agreement between SportZone and JD Sprinter
The memorandum of understanding had been signed in March, and now, the final authorization has been given. This Iberian group will be the second largest in the retail sale of sports goods.
The agreement is now concluded and the merger will move forward. JD Sports and JD Sprinter Holdings, two British retail stores, and Sport Zone will merge their businesses in the Iberian Peninsula. The memorandum of understanding had been signed in March, but this morning, a press release was sent to the market announcing the agreement was concluded.
“Sonae – SGPS, SA (Sonae) hereby announces that following the closing of a Memorandum of Understanding, announced in March 2017, it has, through one of its subsidiaries, Sonae MC Modelo Continente SGPS, S.A., successfully reached an agreement with JD Sports Fashion Plc, Balaiko Firaja Invest S.L. and JD Sprinter Holdings 2010, S.L. (JD Sprinter), in relation to the combination of JD Sprinter and Sport Zone, on materially the same terms as previously announced to the market”.
These terms dictate that the British JD Sprinter and JD Group will be the shareholders of the new group, along with Sonae, with a 20%, 50% and 30% equity, respectively. The Iberian group will be the second largest retail seller of sports goods, and it will have a joint business volume of over 450 million euros. The merger between these companies will result in a 287 stores’ network: Spain will have 191 stores and Portugal will have 96 stores.
"Sonae hereby announces that following the closing of a Memorandum of Understanding, announced in March 2017, it has successfully reached an agreement with JD Sports Fashion Plc and JD Sprinter, in relation to the combination of JD Sprinter and Sport Zone, on materially the same terms as previously announced to the market.”
This merger aims to gain scale economies, assure a better profitability of the business and benefit from each shareholders’ know how.
