Adidas unveil healthy sales rise and earnings boost

Sportswear maker Adidas revealed that its earnings soared and it saw a healthy sales rise in its second quarter, which included most of the World Cup in South Africa.

The firm's brief preliminary report yesterday noted that net profit for the period between April and June was €126 million (105m). A year earlier, the firm eked out profits of €9m.

The 14-fold increase in second-quarter net profit beat analysts' expectations.

The company's revenues were up 19 per cent in euro terms at €2.9 billion. Adidas says that was an 11 per cent increase in currency-neutral terms; the euro declined sharply in the quarter.

Adidas didn't give reasons for its performance, but will release its full results on 4 August.

Ingbert Faust, an analyst at Equinet, said: "Based on the preliminary figures, it remains unanswered how much of the positive development was due to the World Cup.

Faust said the football tournament was "surely a substantial part" of the increase in revenues and profits, but he noted that an improvement in Chinese markets and the turnaround in the company's Reebok division might also have contributed to the rises.

The results came as a survey showed German business confidence posting its highest jump since reunification. The Ifo index rose to 106.2 points from 101.8 points in June, posting its fifth consecutive increase.