LONDON – British sneaker and clothing giant JD Sports Fashion confirmed Tuesday that it plans to accumulate the French company Groupe Courir as a part of a world acquisitions drive.

The FTSE 100 company, which is majority owned by Pentland Group, had entered into exclusive negotiations with Groupe Courir, a footwear and sports apparel retailer, earlier this week.

Groupe Courir is currently majority owned by Equistone Partners Europe, which had acquired the footwear and apparel retailer in 2018 following its carve-out from France’s Groupe Go Sport.

In accordance with JD, the deal has an enterprise value of 520 million euros.

JD said that, in accordance with French law, Courir management will begin consultation processes with worker representative bodies prior to getting into a binding sale and buy agreement.

Completion of the acquisition is conditional on receipt of merger control approval from European Union Law, and just isn’t expected before the second half of the yr.

After deducting net debt of 195 million euros, the quantity payable at completion, subject to certain adjustments, can be 325 million euros.

JD said it planned to fund the acquisition through available money resources. The online debt of 195 million euros principally constitutes existing funding lines of roughly 210 million euros, which can be refinanced at completion.

Courir has 313 stores across six countries in Europe, the vast majority of that are in France, followed by Spain, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

It has an additional 36 stores which trade under franchise agreements as Courir in North West Africa, the Middle East and French overseas territories. Two stores trade in Denmark under the name Naked and concentrate on “elevated” female footwear, in keeping with JD.

Explaining the rationale for the sale, JD said it desires to concentrate on “complementary” concepts as a way of leveraging its existing premium store network.

“This proposed acquisition is in keeping with that growth strategy, as Courir operates stores with a primary concentrate on a female consumer. Leveraging Courir’s extensive knowledge in managing female-oriented stores would significantly broaden the capabilities and global opportunities across the Group,” JD said.

It added that the senior management team and operational infrastructure of Courir can be retained, and it’s the intention that Courir “would maintain its identity and would run autonomously from JD’s French operations.”

For the yr ended Dec. 31, Courir had consolidated revenues of 609.8 million euros, which included 100.3 million euros from the mixture of the sale of product on a commission basis to the affiliates and other commission income from franchisees.

Profit before interest and tax was 47.4 million euros and gross assets were 678.4 million euros.

The proposed acquisition is an element of JD’s ongoing technique to drive growth and consolidate its presence in international markets.

In 2021, JD purchased two U.S. street and sneaker retailers within the space of six weeks.

It bought 100% of DTLR Villa, an athletic footwear and apparel streetwear retailer based in Baltimore, for $495 million. Earlier that yr it snapped up the San Jose, Calif.-based Shoe Palace, which sells brands including Nike, Champion and Fila.

Shares in JD Sports were trading up 2.2 percent at 1.66 kilos on the London Stock Exchange following the announcement.