Foot Locker Sees Significant Losses in First Half as Dick’s Deal Looms

Foot Locker is wearing all red on the eve of its integration into Dick’s. The U.S. sports equipment distribution group closes the first half of the year with losses of more than $400 million, just a few days before the official closing of its sale to Dick’s on September 8th.

According to the company, the net result was negative $401 million at the end of the first half of the year (period ending on August 2nd), compared to negative 4 million dollars in the same period of the previous year. Operating income was also in the red, with a loss of $297 million, compared to a profit of nine million dollars the previous year.

Group sales at the end of the first half amounted to $3,651 million, a fall of 3.39% compared to the first six months of the previous year.

Foot Locker closed the first half of the year with a network of 2,354 stores in twenty countries

By concept, Foot Locker’s sales fell by 0.7% in the first half, while those of Champs Sports fell by the same amount and those of Kids Foot Locker increased by 3.3%. By market, in North America the group declined by 0.4%. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the decline was 14.3%, and in Asia Pacific, 9.6%.

At the beginning of last August, the company had a network of 2,354 stores in 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, plus 243 franchises in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

On May 15, Foot Locker announced an agreement to be acquired by Dick’s, one of its major competitors in the United States. On August 22, Foot Locker’s shareholders approved the transaction, which will be completed on September 8.