By Neil Maidment
LONDON (Reuters) - Sports Direct (L:SPD), Britain's biggest sporting goods retailer, said it would not rule out taking further stakes in rivals and that potential acquisitions in Europe were constantly being assessed as part of its expansion plans.
The group, majority owned by founder and Newcastle United football club owner Mike Ashley, has already taken surprise positions this year in department store group Debenhams (L:DEB), online retailer MySale (L:MYSL) and Britain's biggest retailer Tesco (L:TSCO), all firms it now has retail deals with.
"We always look to explore opportunities," Sports Direct chief executive Dave Forsey said on Thursday as the firm posted an 11 percent rise in first half earnings.
"We have a history of strategic stakes and that may or may not continue," he said, referring to previous investments in key suppliers like Adidas (DE:ADSGn) and its current 11.8 percent holding in British rival JD Sports (L:JD).
This year the group has struck derivative agreements that represent a 12.7 percent interest in Debenhams and a 0.3 percent interest in Tesco. In addition it has opened four trial concession stores with Debenhams and others with Tesco.
Sports Direct has grown rapidly via acquisitions of bust rivals and unloved brands to dominate Britain's high streets with its broad ranges and low prices.
The firm has 434 UK sports stores and another 270 elsewhere in Europe - a market eight times the size of Britain's and one where Forsey says many acquisition opportunities lie.
"There's a constant state of activity on M&A across not just sports retail but also brands and the rest of the group. With the European expansion, of course we will be active," he said.
The group on Thursday posted an 11 percent rise in underlying core earnings before share scheme costs to 203.1 million pounds for the 26 weeks to Oct. 26, led by a 6.5 percent rise in total sales and higher margins.
Core sports retail sales rose 8.3 percent, held back by the impact of England's early World Cup exit and warm autumn weather, but fell at its fashion and brand units.
The group said current trading was good and it was confident of at least reaching full-year underlying core earnings before share scheme costs of 360 million pounds - 9 percent ahead of a year ago.
Its shares were up 0.6 percent to 679 pence at 9:49 a.m..
(Editing by Kate Holton and Vincent Baby)