Britain's competition watchdog plans to examine JD Sports - Footasylum deal

(Reuters) - Britain's competition watchdog said on Friday it was planning to review if JD Sports Fashion Plc's acquisition of smaller rival Footasylum "substantially" reduced competition in the sector.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) served an initial enforcement order in relation to the deal, which was announced in March and valued Footasylum at up to 90 million pounds.

Initial enforcement orders are put in place to prevent businesses from integrating after a possible merger while the watchdog decides if it needs to launch an investigation.

A JD Sports spokesman said a review by the regulator was always a possibility, adding that both JD Sports and Footasylum would cooperate fully with the review.

"We have previous experience of working with the CMA and over recent weeks have had constructive engagement with them on this process," the spokesman said.

JD has made a number of acquisitions over the past two decades to assemble its network of more than 2,400 stores.

(Reporting by Sangameswaran S and Samantha Machado in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)