Adidas vows to boost payouts

Adidas shoes are displayed in the northern Bavarian town of Fuerth, near Nuremberg. File photo: Michaela Rehle

Adidas shoes are displayed in the northern Bavarian town of Fuerth, near Nuremberg. File photo: Michaela Rehle

Published Mar 26, 2015

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Frankfurt - Adidas AG forecast net income will grow about 15 percent on average each year through 2020 and pledged to pay out a bigger proportion of profit to shareholders as the world’s second-biggest sporting-goods maker aims to catch up with industry leader Nike.

Adidas will pay 30 percent to 50 percent of profit in dividends, up from a previous range of 20 percent to 40 percent, the company said in a statement Thursday. Sales are forecast to rise at a high-single-digit percentage rate on average during the period, excluding currency shifts.

The plan is a late-career bid by Chief Executive Officer Herbert Hainer to halt a slide in market share and profit that’s seen Adidas slip further behind top supplier Nike. Adidas abandoned a prior plan last summer that had called for 17 billion euros ($19 billion) in sales and an 11 percent operating margin this year.

“Our new strategy is built on speed, focus and openness,” said Hainer, who since 2008 has abandoned two long-term strategy plans after failing to deliver the promised results.

Hainer and his management team, including board members Eric Liedtke and Roland Auschel, are scheduled to present their financial and strategic plan to investors during an event at Adidas’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, later this morning.

The company, whose famous three-stripe logo has graced European soccer uniforms for half a century, said last month that it’s started a search to replace Hainer, CEO since 2001. Adidas’s supervisory board last year extended the 60-year-old executive’s contract through March 2017.

Bloomberg

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