JD Sports Regulatory News (JD.)

12 April 2012

JD Sports Fashion Plc (the "Group"), the leading retailer and distributor of branded sportswear and fashionwear today announces its Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks ended 28 January 2012.

a) The share of exceptional items of joint venture relate to the reversal of the impairment of the investment held by Focus Brands Limited in Focus Group Holdings Limited, following repayments of original purchase consideration by the vendors of Focus Group Holdings Limited. This process is now complete and Focus is now an 80% owned subsidiary of the Group.

b) Net cash consists of cash and cash equivalents together with interest-bearing loans and borrowings.

·; Despite a loss of £2.2m from the newly acquired Blacks business, group profit before tax and exceptionals exceeded consensus market expectations.

·; Significant investments give the Group the platform for future development:

o Acquisitions in Ireland (Champion Sports) and Spain (Sprinter) have continued the international expansion of the Sports Retail concepts. A further two JD stores have been opened in France during the year and the first JD store in Spain opened in late March 2012.

o Acquisition of brands and agreement for exclusive brand licences have continued.

o Additional personnel and associated costs in International Retail, Brands & Licensing and Multi-Channel development.

o New centralised warehouse for the Group's UK retail operations to be fully operational by Summer 2012.

·; A robust operating profit and gross margin performance was achieved given the well documented market headwinds and scale of investment activity undertaken in the year:

o Group gross margin decreased from 49.5% to 49.2% due to the impact of the acquired businesses.

o Excluding the impact of these acquired businesses the margin in the like for like businesses increased by 0.2% to 49.7%.

·; Sales, gross margin and operating profit before exceptional items of the four business segments are tabulated below:

·; Overall gross LFL sales for the period to 28 January 2012 in the UK and Ireland combined core retail segments increased by 0.6% (net -1.0%):

·; Like for like net sales for the nine weeks to 31 March (prior to the Easter crossover) have increased by 1.2%:

·; Final dividend payable increased by 10% to 21.2p (2011: 19.2p) bringing the total dividends payable for the year to 25.30p (2011: 23.00p) per ordinary share, an increase of 10%.

·; Net cash at year end was £60.3 million (2011: £86.1 million).

Peter Cowgill, Executive Chairman, said:

"During the period, we have invested significantly in brands, businesses and infrastructure to strengthen the platform for future development of the Group. Despite the continued difficult trading conditions across our markets, we are pleased to report some positive results within the Group, particularly from our mainland European businesses.

"Whilst we expect some improvement in consumer confidence from the forthcoming international sporting events, we remain cautious. Trading in the early part of the current financial year has been satisfactory in the core UK and Ireland fascias with net like for like sales for the 9 weeks to 31 March 2012 of +1.2% (Sports Fascias +1.0%, Fashion Fascias +2.3%). Margins remain under pressure as consumers continue to be offer driven.

"The Group is exceptionally well positioned with its retail proposition, financial resources and management experience to take advantage of any opportunities both in the UK and internationally. Whilst the Board recognises that current expansion activity is likely to impact returns in the short term, it remains confident that the Group is being positioned to deliver longer term earnings growth and increasing shareholder returns."

Enquiries:

JD Sports Fashion Plc Tel: 0161 767 1000

Peter Cowgill, Executive Chairman

Barry Bown, Chief Executive

Brian Small, Finance Director

MHP Communications Tel: 020 3128 8100

Andrew Jaques

Barnaby Fry

Ian Payne

Introduction

Following the acquisition of Blacks in January 2012, the Group now comprises four divisions being Sports Fascias, Fashion Fascias, Outdoor and Distribution. Our core business is retail and our other businesses largely support the retail proposition and offer benefits to the Group from a strategic standpoint.

During the period, we have invested significantly in brands, businesses, multi-channel and other infrastructure to strengthen the platform for future development of the Group. Beyond the UK we have also expanded by acquisition in Ireland and Spain and opened further JD stores in France. In addition, the first JD store in Spain was opened in Granada on 30 March 2012. International development will be a key foundation for our future and further investment in our infrastructure overhead will be required to deliver longer term sustained profitability from this activity.

Our new centralised warehouse in Kingsway, Rochdale is a further example of the investment that we have undertaken. This will be fully operational in Summer 2012 and we anticipate that almost all stock for the core UK Sports and Fashion retail fascias will be channelled through one warehouse, improving service to retail and reducing transportation time and costs.

In April 2011, we noted that the increased proportion of gross takings represented by VAT combined with increased commodity costs and low consumer confidence would inhibit potential earnings growth in the year just ended. Therefore, taking into account these factors and the scale of the investment activity in the year, it is pleasing to report that the final group profit before tax (adding back exceptional items) of £76.0 million (2011: £81.6 million) exceeds the market expectations set at that time. Within the Group there have been positive results notably the contribution from our newly acquired Spanish retail business (Sprinter) which has contributed to a further enhancement in the overall performance from the Sports Fascias.

Group operating profit (adding back exceptional items and excluding share of results of joint venture) for the year was £76.5 million (2011: £79.9 million) and comprises a Sports Fascias profit of £74.3 million (2011: £73.3 million), a Fashion Fascias profit of £3.3 million (2011: £6.4 million), an Outdoor loss of £2.2 million (2011: £nil) and a Distribution profit of £1.1 million (2011: £0.2 million).

Net cash at the year end was £60.3 million, a decline of £25.8 million reflecting both the level of acquisition activity and an increase in capital expenditure for the fit out of the Kingsway warehouse facility. However, the Group continues to generate significant amounts of cash at the operating level.

The ongoing strength of the Group's Balance Sheet, together with confidence that the Group's operations are fundamentally cash generative, mean that the Board is able to propose another significant rise in the level of the total dividend to shareholders with a final proposed dividend up 10% to 21.2p (2011: 19.2p). This brings the total dividends payable for the year to 25.3p (2011: 23.0p) and means that annual dividends payable have now risen by 198% over the last four years.

Acquisitions

We have been pleased with the early development of our JD business in France. This has given us the confidence to replicate this model in further territories. At the end of June 2011 we invested €12m (net of cash retained in the business) to acquire 50.1% of the Sprinter business in Spain. On acquisition, Sprinter had 47 stores primarily based in Andalucia and Levante. As with Chausport in 2009, we believe that we have acquired a business which can perform well in its own right, whilst also providing us with a management team and infrastructure to expand JD's fascia into a new territory. We have subsequently opened our first JD store in Granada, Spain on 30 March 2012 and we anticipate further openings in 2012. In the seven months to January 2012 Sprinter contributed turnover of £51.7m and generated an operating profit of £4.7m, although this performance benefitted from not having to include the loss making opening period of the year in the post acquisition result.

In April 2011 we acquired Champion Sports (Holdings) ('Champion'), for a nominal consideration, although we advanced €17.1 million to the business to allow it to settle all of its bank debt (at a substantial discount to the par value) save for €2.5 million of leasing finance. After closing three smaller loss making stores, Champion now has 20 stores which are all located in the Republic of Ireland giving the Group a significant market position throughout the whole of Ireland. The most significant returns from this acquisition will come when economic conditions improve in the Republic of Ireland. In the meantime, we are reviewing our strategic options with regards to store locations and fascias and are seeking to reduce the current level of certain store rents to a level which is more consistent with the revenues now being generated. We are also working to realise the savings from combining the operations of the two businesses where this is practical.

The acquisition of the trade and assets of Blacks for £20.0 million on 9 January 2012 was on the basis that the core Blacks business has similarities to JD with its premium branded offering complemented by a selection of relevant own brands. We believe that Blacks needs to concentrate on the traditional core strengths of its branded and own brand outdoor offer and re-establish its market-leading authority through a much reduced store base, a strong multi-channel offer and a more appropriate central cost structure.

The acquisition of the trade and assets of eight Cecil Gee stores, from Moss Bros Group Plc, in June 2011 for a consideration of £1.6 million provided the Group with a relatively low cost opportunity to develop a premium fashion fascia which can stock brands previously unavailable to the Group's existing fascias. Post acquisition these stores delivered revenues of £6.0 million but made an operating loss of £0.6 million. We have subsequently closed two loss making stores and are looking at additional acquisition opportunities with the potential to provide critical mass in premium fashion.

The acquisition of the Fenchurch brand during the year combined with the agreement for exclusive licences for Fila and Diadora, are a further demonstration of our commitment to developing a unique and exclusive product offering for our retail customers.

In the Distribution segment, we have further increased our general teamwear offering through the acquisition of 80% of the global Kukri business which provides bespoke teamwear primarily to schools, colleges and universities. We have also increased our shareholding in the Focus business by 31% to 80% thereby making it a subsidiary.

Sports Fascias

The Sports Fascias are JD, Size?, Chausport, Sprinter and Champion Sports.

The Sports Fascias' total revenue (after elimination of inter-group sales) increased by 16.3% during the period to £774.6 million (2011: £665.9 million) with gross like for like sales growth of 0.3% (2011: +5.6%) in the core UK and Ireland sports fascia stores although on a net basis, excluding VAT, this represented a decline of 1.2% (2011: +3.8%).

Gross margin achieved in the Sports Fascias decreased marginally to 50.8% (2011: 51.0%) driven by lower margins in the acquired Champion and Sprinter businesses. The margin in the like for like businesses rose to 51.5% which we consider to be a very robust performance given the increase in VAT and the impact of the rise in the cost of cotton.

Operating profit (before exceptional items) of the Sports Fascias increased by £1.0 million to £74.3 million (2011: £73.3 million) after the absorption of incremental overhead in the year primarily from duplicate operating costs at Kingsway as we started paying rent on 1 March 2011 when we took possession of the facility. There were also incremental costs in the year from investment in resource in International Retail, Brands & Licensing and Multi-Channel development. Inevitably, there is lag between the investment in resource and the generation of results but we are confident that these investments will drive returns in future years.

The contribution from France increased to £1.3 million (2011: £0.5 million). This included an overall growth in like for like sales in the Chausport stores for the year of 2.2% which is a strong result given the prior year growth of 12.5%. We remain encouraged by the performance and potential of Chausport as a fascia in its own right.

The newly acquired Sprinter business contributed an operating profit of £4.7 million for the seven months post acquisition which was ahead of our expectations.

We continue to invest in the store portfolio with 27 store openings and 21 refurbishments or conversions. These include four new stores in France (including a new JD in Marseille), three new Sprinter stores, the conversion of an existing Chausport store in Amiens to JD and the refurbishment of the Champion store in Blanchardstown. 21 Sports Fascia stores were closed in the period including 3 smaller loss making Champion stores.

Fashion Fascias

The Fashion Fascias are Bank, Scotts and Cecil Gee.

The Fashion Fascias' total revenue (after elimination of inter-group sales) increased by 13.2% during the period to £151.6 million (2011: £133.9 million) which includes £6.0 million from the Cecil Gee stores (7 months). Gross like for like sales grew by 2.2% (2011: +1.5%) being Bank +3.9% (2011: +1.2%) and Scotts -2.9% (2011: +2.1%). On a net basis, the like for like sales grew by 0.1% (2011: -0.7%) being Bank +1.8% (2011: -0.9%) and Scotts -5.0% (2011: +0.0%). The performance of the Bank fascia was heavily influenced by significant growth in its online channel which, in a very competitive sector, is proving to be an effective method of making targeted promotions to customers.

Gross margin achieved in the Fashion Fascias has reduced from 49.0% to 48.5%. However, this includes a dilutive effect from clearing excess and fragmented stocks which we acquired with the Cecil Gee stores and excluding this acquisition the like for like margin was 48.7%. Given the VAT rate rise this is a robust performance for the segment as a whole.

The Bank fascia sells largely branded fashion to both males and females, predominantly for the teenage to mid-twenties sector. In the year the store portfolio grew from 74 stores to 80 stores, still based predominantly in the North and the Midlands. The loss of distribution of two key brands had a significant impact on the overall result with operating profit (before exceptional items) reduced by £2.1 million to £3.1 million (2011: £5.2 million). Bank needs to develop a greater level of exclusivity in its brand mix and our acquisition in the year of Fenchurch will help create that differentiated offer. The Board remains confident about the future prospects for the fascia.

The Scotts fascia stores offer brand authority to older more affluent males. Two loss making stores were closed in the period with no new openings resulting in 35 stores at the year end, largely in the North and the Midlands. The operating profit (before exceptional items) in the year was £0.8 million (2011: £1.2 million). The premium fashion business (which incorporates Cecil Gee) is in the early stages of brand and fascia redevelopment.

Outdoor

The acquisition of Blacks has created a new reporting segment for the Group in Outdoor Retail.

The Blacks business was in a very fractured state on acquisition. We inherited a limited and unbalanced stock position, with a particularly severe lack of stocks in many core high performing lines. The management team is investing a significant amount of time on developing relationships with the key brands and getting stocks flowing again.

In the three weeks from acquisition to year end Blacks generated revenues of £5.9 million, but delivered an operating loss (excluding exceptional items) of £2.2 million for the period, which we attribute to the lack of stock in the business and the inheritance of an excessively large and overrented store portfolio as well as a disproportionate central cost base.

Since acquisition we have closed 81 loss making Blacks stores leaving a current store base of 215 stores. Ultimately, determining the size of the long term store base will depend on store performance when set against newly negotiated rents and associated property costs. We are also evaluating the central overheads and rationalising where appropriate. We do not expect these savings to be wholly realised until Spring 2013 and so, whilst we expect a modest recovery in the second half, we now anticipate that Blacks will be earnings dilutive in the current year.

We have started the process of streamlining the business and included in exceptional items is a charge for £3.5 million for redundancies and other restructuring costs following the initial review of both the store portfolio and overhead cost base. This review process is ongoing and we would anticipate a further charge for restructuring costs in the year to January 2013.

Distribution

The Distribution businesses delivered a small operating profit of £1.1 million (2011: £0.2 million) with good performances from Focus, Kukri, Canterbury and Nicholas Deakins offset by investment at Topgrade Wholesale to build Getthelabel.com and ongoing weak performance in Kooga.

Focus has been an 80% subsidiary of the Group since a controlling interest of the former joint venture was acquired in February 2011. Focus will continue to concentrate on the design, sourcing and distribution of footwear and apparel for own brand and under license brands for both group and external customers. Included within Focus's stable of brands going forward is Peter Werth, which we acquired in the period for £0.4 million, and Fly 53, which we acquired after the year end for £0.5 million. Focus contributed external revenues of £17.2 million and an operating profit (before exceptional items) of £1.4m in the period after the acquisition of the controlling interest.

Kukri has also been an 80% subsidiary of the Group since February 2011 with its global bespoke teamwear business contributing revenues of £16.1 million and an operating profit of £0.5 million. Kukri's principal customers are schools, colleges and universities. Kukri also supply replica apparel and accessories for the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament, which is one of the biggest events in the Sevens World Series.

Canterbury's global rugby business had an encouraging year with a strong performance, principally in New Zealand and Australia, from sales associated with the Rugby World Cup. However, after a substantial rise in the losses in the US operation (largely fashionwear) to £1.1 million (2011: £0.3 million) and a smaller rise in the losses of the Canterbury European Fashionwear business to £0.8 million (2011: £0.6 million) the total operating profit for the Canterbury Group reduced to £0.4 million (2011: £1.1 million). We have decided to close the US business and have recognised a total of £1.6m costs associated with the closure within exceptional items. In future, the brand will operate in the US through licensing partners.

The Getthelabel.com online and catalogue business within Topgrade has now been trading for over two years. Sales increased by 58% compared to the prior year which was in line with the initial business plan. However, this required substantial investment in marketing and so consequently the losses with the online business widened by £0.5 million to £1.5 million (2011: £1.0 million). This is not unusual in this phase of the development of a young multi-channel business. However, we anticipate further significant growth this year and would anticipate that the losses in the online business will at least be substantially reduced. The wholesale operation within Topgrade had strong year with operating profits increasing by £0.6 million to £0.8 million (2011: £0.2 million) with good availability of clearance packages from the key brands.

Group Performance

Revenue

Total revenue increased by 19.9% in the year to £1,059.5 million (2011: £883.7 million) of which £139.3 million of sales were generated from businesses acquired in the year, principally from Sprinter (£51.7 million), Champion (£36.9 million), Focus (£17.2 million) and Kukri (£16.1 million).

Gross margin

Total Gross Margin fell from 49.5% to 49.2%. However, excluding the impact of the acquired businesses the margin in the like for like businesses increased by 0.2% to 49.7%. The margin achieved in the acquired businesses was 45.7%.

Operating profits

Operating profit (before exceptional items) decreased by £3.4 million to £76.5 million (2011: £79.9 million) which represents a Group operating margin (before exceptional items) of 7.2% (2011: 9.0%). Operating costs increased to 42.0% of sales (2011: 40.5%) with operating expenses in the like for like businesses of 41.8% and operating expenses in the acquired businesses of 43.2%. Costs increased in the like for like businesses due to duplicate warehouse costs and investments in resource in International Retail, Brands & Licensing and Multi-Channel development.

Following an increase in the exceptional items to £9.7 million (2011: £4.3 million), Group operating profit decreased from £75.6 million to £66.8 million.

The exceptional items (excluding share of exceptional items in joint venture) comprise:

(1) Relates to the reorganisation of the current warehouse operations consisting of the provision for onerous property leases and redundancy costs.

(2) Relates to redundancies and other one off costs incurred in the closure of Canterbury North America. The charge includes £0.1m for the impairment of fixed assets.

(3) Relates to redundancy costs in stores, warehouse and central operations.

(4) The impairment of intangible assets relates to Kooga goodwill and brand name (£1.9 million) and Cecil Gee fascia name (£0.8 million).

(5) The gain on the disposal of the Focus joint venture arose from the remeasurement to fair value of the Group's previously held investment in Focus Brands Limited.

Working capital and financing

The level of acquisition activity through the year together with the capital expenditure incurred on fitting out the Kingsway warehouse means that year end net cash decreased by £25.8 million to £60.3 million (2011: £86.1 million) and the revolving credit facility has been used through most of the year. As a consequence, the Group had a net financing charge of £0.4 million compared to net financing income in the prior year of £0.2 million.

The Group has a £75 million committed syndicated bank facility secured until 12 October 2015. This facility consists of a £60 million revolving credit facility with a margin of 1.25% over LIBOR together with a £15 million working capital facility.

Gross capital expenditure (excluding disposal costs) increased by £12.7 million to £45.7 million (2011: £33.0 million). This increase was a result of spend in the year of £19.4 million (2011: £3.9 million) on fitting out Kingsway. This investment is now largely complete and testing of the sortation equipment has been ongoing for several weeks. We will start taking inbound deliveries into Kingsway from 23 April 2012 and anticipate that the full migration of activity will be complete by late June.

The investment in the retail fascias during the year decreased by £5.3 million to £20.1 million (2011: £25.4 million). This decrease was primarily focused in the core JD fascia where we opened 19 stores (2011: 21 stores) and completed 11 major refurbishments (2011: 14 refurbishments). There was also a reduction in the number of new stores in Bank to 8 stores (2011: 13 stores). Even though we will not be incurring significant expenditure on the Kingsway warehouse, we anticipate that capital expenditure in the year to January 2013 will increase further to approximately £60 million as we look to accelerate the programme of JD store openings and refurbishments in France and Spain. In addition, we will also start a programme to replace the core ERP systems in the retail businesses. This programme of works will take approximately 3 years to complete.

Working capital remains well controlled with suppliers continuing to be paid to agreed terms and settlement discounts taken whenever due.

Store Portfolio

Although slightly lower than the prior year, we have still made a further significant investment in the store portfolio during the year, with expenditure on both new stores and refurbishments of existing space.

During the year, store numbers in the Sports and Fashion fascias moved as follows:

Sports Fascias

Fashion Fascias

Dividends and Earnings per Share

The Board proposes paying a final dividend of 21.20p (2011: 19.20p) bringing the total dividend payable for the year to 25.30p (2011: 23.00p) per ordinary share. The proposed final dividend will be paid on 30 July 2012 to all shareholders on the register at 4 May 2012. The final dividend has been increased by 10% with total dividends payable for the year increased by 10%. The dividend has therefore increased by 198% in 4 years.

The adjusted earnings per ordinary share before exceptional items were 105.89p (2011: 116.86p).

The basic earnings per ordinary share were 96.27p (2011: 114.84p).

Employees

In difficult trading conditions we are more reliant than ever on the skills and energy of our employees around the world to drive performance and the whole Board would like to thank them for their commitment. We remain totally committed to their training and career development and the ongoing development of the Group internationally should enhance their prospects.

Current Trading and Outlook

Whilst we expect some improvement in consumer confidence from the forthcoming international sporting events, we remain cautious for well reported reasons. Trading in the early part of the current financial year has been satisfactory in the core UK and Ireland fascias with net like for like sales for the 9 weeks to 31 March 2012 of +1.2% (Sports Fascias +1.0%, Fashion Fascias +2.3%). Margins remain under pressure as consumers continue to be offer driven.

It is clear that the recently acquired Blacks business will be dilutive to earnings this year whilst we resolve the challenges across the business, particularly with regards to stock and property. We envisage that the majority of the earnings dilution will come in the first half of the year.

The Group is exceptionally well positioned with its retail proposition, financial resources and management experience to take advantage of any opportunities both in the UK and internationally. Whilst the Board recognises that current expansion activity is likely to impact returns in the short term, it remains confident that the Group is being positioned to deliver longer term earnings growth and increasing shareholder returns.

A further update will be made in our Interim Management Statement no later than 15 June 2012.

Peter Cowgill

Executive Chairman

12 April 2012

Consolidated Income Statement

For the 52 weeks ended 28 January 2012

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

For the 52 weeks ended 28 January 2012

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

As at 28 January 2012

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

For the 52 weeks ended 28 January 2012

Put options are held by the 49% non-controlling interest in Canterbury of New Zealand Limited and 25% non-controlling interest in Canterbury International (Australia) Pty Limited.

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity (continued)

For the 52 weeks ended 28 January 2012

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

For the 52 weeks ended 28 January 2012

Analysis of Net Cash

As at 28 January 2012

1. Segmental analysis

IFRS 8 'Operating Segments' requires the Group's segments to be identified on the basis of internal reports about components of the Group that are regularly reviewed by the Chief Operating Decision Maker to allocate resources to the segments and to assess their performance. The Chief Operating Decision Maker is considered to be the Executive Chairman of JD Sports Fashion Plc.

Information reported to the Chief Operating Decision Maker is focused on the nature of the businesses within the Group. A new reportable segment has been created in the current year on acquisition of the Blacks business which signalled an entry into the outdoor retail segment for the Group. The Group's reportable segments under IFRS 8 are therefore as follows:

·; Sport retail - includes the results of the sport retail trading companies JD Sports Fashion Plc, John David Sports Fashion (Ireland) Limited, Chausport SA, Champion Sports (Holdings), JD Sprinter Holdings 2010 SL and Duffer of St George Limited

·; Fashion retail - includes the results of the fashion retail trading companies Bank Fashion Limited, RD Scott Limited and Premium Fashion Limited

·; Outdoor retail - includes the results of Blacks Outdoor Retail Limited

·; Distribution businesses - includes the results of the distribution companies Topgrade Sportswear Limited, Nicholas Deakins Limited, Canterbury Limited (including global subsidiary companies), Kooga Rugby Limited, Nanny State Limited, Focus Brands Limited and Kukri Sports Limited (including global subsidiary companies)

The Chief Operating Decision Maker receives and reviews segmental operating profit. Certain central administrative costs including Group Directors' salaries are included within the Group's core 'Sport retail' result. This is consistent with the results as reported to the Chief Operating Decision Maker.

IFRS 8 requires disclosure of information regarding revenue from major products and customers. The majority of the Group's revenue is derived from the retail of a wide range of apparel, footwear and accessories to the general public. As such, the disclosure of revenues from major products and customers is not appropriate. Disclosure of revenue from major product groups is not provided at this time due to the cost involved to develop a reliable product split on a same category basis across all companies in the Group.

Intersegment transactions are undertaken in the ordinary course of business on arms length terms.

The Board consider that certain items are cross divisional in nature and cannot be allocated between the segments on a meaningful basis. The share of results of joint venture is presented as unallocated in the following tables, as this entity had trading relationships with companies in all of the Group's segments. An asset of £nil (2011: £3,458,000) for the equity accounted investment in joint venture is included within the unallocated segment. The exceptional credits pertaining to the dividend received from joint venture (£2,691,000) and gain on disposal of joint venture (£871,000) are included within the unallocated segment. Net funding costs and taxation are treated as unallocated reflecting the nature of the Group's syndicated borrowing facilities and its tax group. A deferred tax liability of £1,012,000 (2011: asset of £125,000) and an income tax liability of £8,861,000 (2011: £12,370,000) are included within the unallocated segment.

Each segment is shown net of intercompany transactions and balances within that segment. The eliminations remove intercompany transactions and balances between different segments which primarily relate to the net down of long term loans and short term working capital funding provided by JD Sports Fashion Plc (within Sport retail) to other companies in the Group, and intercompany trading between companies in different segments.

Business Segments

Information regarding the Group's reportable operating segments for the 52 weeks to 28 January 2012 is shown below: