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* H1 core earnings jump 25%
* Raises lower end of 2021 profit outlook by 10%
* Shares up 15%
(Adds shares, analyst comments, background)
By Yadarisa Shabong
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Mike Ashley's British sportswear group
Frasers reported a 25% rise in first-half core earnings
on Thursday and raised the lower end of its annual forecast
following strong online sales and the reopening of stores at the
start of December.
Frasers closed stores during lockdowns across Europe, but it
said its online business "remains resilient," benefiting from
increased demand for casual sports clothing as many people work
from home because of the pandemic.
The group, formerly named after its flagship Sports Direct
brand, raised the bottom end of its annual core profit forecast
by 10%, expecting growth of between 20% to 30%, up from 10% to
30% predicted earlier.
Shares are on track to make gains for the year. By 0914 GMT,
they traded 15% higher.
Frasers, in a separate statement on Thursday, said it
continued to build its relationships with its main suppliers,
including Nike for Sports Direct, Burberry for Flannels, and
Hugo Boss for House of Fraser.
Analysts had said that low Nike stock in certain Sports
Direct stores could mean its shoppers face a non-Nike Christmas.
"The lack of key product could persist and leave Frasers'
cash cow, the core Sports Directs, compromised," Peel Hunt
analysts had said in a note on Tuesday.
Buying other businesses and strategic stakes forms part of
Ashley's long-stated desire to make Frasers the "Selfridges of
sport".
This year Frasers purchased stakes in luxury brand Mulberry
and German fashion house Hugo Boss.
Frasers said on Monday it was in talks to buy collapsed
department store Debenhams from administrators.
It was also interested in participating in the sale process
of Philip Green's collapsed Arcadia Group.
For the six months to Oct. 25, the company made underlying
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
(EBITDA) of 226.3 million pounds ($301.93 million), compared
with 181.2 million pounds a year earlier.
($1 = 0.7504 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong; Editing by Saumyadeb
Chakrabarty, Arun Koyyur and Barbara Lewis)
