JD Sports launches £200m share buyback programme

Following on from last year’s £100 million share buyback programme, JD Sports Fashion has announced it intends to return a further £200 million of capital to shareholders through share buybacks in its full financial year of 2026/27.

In line with JD’s capital allocation priorities and its commitment to continue delivering significant cash returns to shareholders, the programme will commence immediately and initially involve the purchase of ordinary shares of £0.0005 each in the company.

The company has entered an "irrevocable agreement" with Merrill Lynch International (BofA Securities) to undertake the programme on its behalf.

The maximum number of shares that may be acquired under the programme, as authorised by shareholders at the company's 2025 annual general meeting on 2 July 2025, is 515,475,677.

Last month, JD Sports reported “resilient” trading over the peak Christmas period, delivering Q4 sales growth of 1.4% and said it expects full-year profit to be “in line with market expectations”.

Covering the nine weeks to 3 January 2026, the retailer said like-for-like sales declined 1.8%, broadly unchanged from the third quarter.

The group’s performance was underpinned by a return to growth in North America, its largest market, where like-for-like sales rose 1.5%, improving markedly on Q3. That strength was partially offset by weaker trends in Europe and the UK, where consumer demand softened in early December.