Five-a-side football pitches operator Goals Soccer Centres PLC (LON:GOAL) has said its first quarter sales are in line with market expectations but made no mention of previously disclosed merger talks in a trading update today.
On April 24, Goals had confirmed press reports that it is in talks with its rival Powerleague but said it that it is just one of the “strategic opportunities currently being assessed” by the group.
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Responding to a Sky News report which had said the UK's two most prominent operators of five-a-side football pitches are examining a surprise merger, Goals said that at this stage in the discussions with Powerleague “no commercial or financial terms have been agreed and no decision on any course of action has been made by the Board.”
The group had also said that, notwithstanding the current merger talks, it is still “highly focused" on delivering the strategic plan it unveiled in June 2016 which helped it return to like-for-like (LFL) sales growth in the second-half.
In the update today, ahead of the firm’s annual general meeting, Goals’ chairman, Nick Basing, simply said: "Although there remains much still to do, we have continued to make encouraging progress in executing our strategic plan this year.”
The group added that its “sales for the first 18 weeks of 2017 are above the levels achieved during last year and in line with current market expectations."