JD has completed on the acquisition of Courir in Europe JD has finally completed on the acquisition of Courir (announced in May 2023) following conditional clearance from the European Commission on 22 October. Courir has 323 stores branded as Courir across France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal & Luxembourg. In addition, there are 36 stores which trade under franchise agreements as Courir in North West Africa, Middle East and French overseas territories plus 3 owned stores trading as Naked, an elevated concept for women’s sneakers. To satisfy the remedies, 21 Courir stores (15 in France and all 6 stores in Portugal) will be divested to Snipes in Q1 FY26. The acquisition cost is €520m and we have previously estimated that it will add a couple of percent to PBT post financing on an annualised basis, though we note there is no comment on the recent performance of the business. In the US, DICK’S reported much better Q3 trading than JD In other news, DICK’S Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) yesterday reported Q3 results for the same period as JD reported last week. DICK’S seems to have navigated the promotional environment well, benefiting from a much broader, differentiated product assortment (covering sports, outdoor and equipment) than JD. DICK’S raised guidance for the third time this year, after reporting Q3 earnings to end of October of $2.75 (FactSet consensus $2.69). DICK’S Q3 sales were up 4.9% with comparable sales adjusted for the calendar effect up 4.2% (Q2 +4.5%) and the gross margin expanded by 67bps, driven by higher merchandising margin due to sales mix more than offsetting the calendar effect and deleverage on occupancy costs. This performance contrasted with that of JD Sport, which saw weakness in Q3 sales, reporting Q3 US LFL sales down 1.5% (Q2 +5.7%). Like JD, DICK’S talked of a strong back-to-school period but felt the weather and election had no impact. On weather, management commented: ‘It was warmer than we might have liked in the last part of the quarter, but it didn't have a material impact on our comp.’ and when asked about the Election pull-back, said ‘we didn't see anything meaningful…in the quarter. We are seeing the consumer just fine after that.’ To get another view of the US market, the focus now turns to Foot Locker (NYSE: FL) which reports its Q3 update on 4 December, and operates in a more similar segment of the market to JD Sports.