JD Sports ‘on track’ to meet profit expectations as it gears up for AGM
Sporstwear retailer JD Sports struck a confident tone in the City this morning as it claimed it was on track to meet profit forecasts.
Shares in the high street brand edged up three per cent in morning trading after the group said it expected to deliver headline pre-tax profit ahead of its full-year results next month.
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Buoyed by the increasingly popularity of athleisure, the leading trainer and sportswear firm has also been ramping up its US footprint, recently opening its sixth JD store across the pond.
Executive chairman Peter Cowgill is set to tell shareholders at the firm’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) later today that JD Sports has enjoyed “encouraging like-for-like sales growth” in its core sports fashion markets within the UK and internationally.
Earlier this week shareholder advisory service PIRC recommended investors vote against the re-election of Cowgill as executive chair at today’s AGM.
PIRC said: “It is a generally accepted norm of good practice that the Chairman of the Board should act with a proper degree of independence from the Company’s management team when exercising his or her oversight of the functioning of the Board. Holding an executive position is incompatible with this.”
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JD’s global store estate has seen a net increase of 29 new stores (109,000 sqft) in the period to 29 June 2019, with an emphasis on international development, having opened a net 18 new stores to date across Europe.
In April the firm bucked the wider trend of dismal high street results after posting a 15 per cent rise in profits to £340, prompting shares to soar to a record high.