Sports Direct International (SDI) has provided employees and partners with updates on its performance, which is ahead of market expectations for profits before tax and earnings per share. The company said that its underlying Ebitda is in line with expectations of £380 million. The company attributed the above-expectations earnings to its continued and prudent depreciation policy and lower interest charges. The group's net debt at the end of its fiscal year, on April 26, reached about £60 million, down from £212 million at the same time last year. The update was issued at the company's annual conference, attended by 900 of its employees and partners from all of its major third party suppliers. They heard presentations by the management team about continued investment in SDI's large format U.K. city center stores and in its ten Austrian megastores. They also received an update on SDI's plans for combined gym and sports retail concepts, following on the launch of such a concept in Aintree last year. Preliminary results for the full fiscal year are to be released on July 16.

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