2H-to-date trading well ahead of expectations but outer year COVID cuts Organic sales rose 5% in the first 22 weeks of 2H Jan-21, despite second wave lockdowns in many markets, and well ahead of our -8% estimate. With strong margins and cost leverage adj PBT for FY21 is expected to come in 40% ahead of our and consensus expectations. JD also provided early FY22 guidance and factoring in further lockdowns in Q1 drives our small 2022e trim though we leave FY23 materially unchanged. Treating the beat largely as a one-time event our DCF-derived target increases to 890p. With shares trading on 26x CY21 PE we retain our Neutral rating. A pandemic-proof performance since July... JD achieved 5% group organic sales growth in the period from August to early January, with minimal net space growth and an average of 14% space closed on our estimates due to lockdown restrictions. This is not far below the 13% growth JD achieved in FY Jan-20, before coronavirus upended retailing in the Western world. We understand that stores traded positively on an LFL basis when open and estimate this was supplemented with online sales growth 60% yoy. ...driving 40%+ upgrades to FY Jan-21 Despite the UK, Germany and Netherlands all currently in lockdown again for the last month of the financial year, JD expects adj PBT of at least GBP400m. We move our own forecast to GBP430m, just 2% below that achieved in the prior year. Despite the purchase of Shoe Palace (already in our forecasts) we anticipate year end net cash (ex leases) of GBP604m, suggesting plenty of scope to exploit any further MandA opportunities which may arise. Lowering FY22 to factor in Q1 lockdown impacts Management also gave unusually early guidance on outer year expectations. Factoring in lockdown running until the end of March in UK and some extended closures in continental Europe JD expects to be able to grow PBT 5-10%. This would appear conservative given Shoe Palace should add GBP40m....