The European Commission has approved, subject to conditions, the takeover of French Courir by British sportswear company JD Sports.

To address the Commission's competition concerns, the merged company has offered to sell "all Courir stores in Portugal and a number of stores in certain regions of France to Snipes, a direct competitor focused on sportswear retail", it said in a statement on Tuesday.

“These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and ensure sufficient competition and choice in the markets concerned,” the company stressed. JD Sports had entered into negotiations with Equistone Partners Europe, a London-based private equity firm that holds a majority stake in Courir, in the spring of 2023. The acquisition agreement was closed in September 2023.

The amount offered by the British group consisted of EUR 325 million in cash and EUR 195 million for the assumption of debt.

Courir is based in France and was described at the time as “a leading player in the sportswear industry in Europe”, with 313 own stores, mainly in France, but also in Spain, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. There are also franchise stores in Africa and the Middle East.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.NL, translated and edited to English.

It was translated using an AI tool called Gemini 1.5. .