JD Sports upbeat on profit as consumers spend more during holidays

People pass a JD Sports store in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo

Jan 12 (Reuters) – JD Sports Fashion (JD.L) on Wednesday raised its annual profit forecast ahead of market expectations, benefiting from robust holiday demand and as U.S. consumers spent more on apparels.

Britain’s biggest sportswear retailer, which sells brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma, expects headline pretax profit of at least 875 million pounds ($1.19 billion) for the year to Jan. 29, ahead of current market expectations of 810 million pounds.

It had earlier forecast annual headline pretax profit of at least 750 million pounds.

The London-listed enterprise has been expanding abroad since it set up a Malaysian joint venture in 2015, a trend that continued during the pandemic as it bought major fashion and footwear retailers in the United States and Europe.

JD Sports said its profit for the financial year ending January 2023 is expected to be in line with the current year, as it looks to mitigate supply chain issues and the impact from COVID-19 restrictions.

The company said the U.S. government’s fiscal stimulus in the first half of 2021 might have contributed up to 100 million pounds to its fiscal 2022 earnings.

($1 = 0.7336 pounds)

Reporting by Muhammed Husain and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

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