Sports Direct To Buy 60 JJB Sports Stores

Retailer Sports Direct is set to buy up to 60 JJB Sports retail stores, "safeguarding at least 1,000 jobs at the struggling chain," according to Felsted & Thompson of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Newcastle United Owner Mike Ashley, who founded Sports Direct, will buy the stores for £30M ($49M). The 60 stores amount to "one-third of JJB’s estate." It will take control of 20 stores immediately, with the acquisition of the remaining 40 "subject to approval from the U.K. competition authority." Sports Direct is already the U.K.’s largest sportswear and equipment retailer. The sale is "likely to take the form of a pre-pack administration -- the pre-negotiated sale of an insolvent business." Sports Direct "has been the frontrunner to acquire some of JJB’s estate," after it said on Monday that it could collapse into administration (FINANCIAL TIMES, 9/27).