Adidas Q4 Loss Narrows, Sees Weak Sales In North America; Stock Down

(RTTNews) - German sportswear giant adidas AG Wednesday reported a narrower net loss in its fourth quarter amid weak revenues. In fiscal 2023, the company slipped to a loss, reportedly the first loss in 30 years, mainly reflecting Yeezy impact. Further, the company announced stable dividend, and said it sees improved operating profit and sales in fiscal 2024, while currency-neutral sales in North America would be weak.

In the morning trading in Germany, adidas shares were losing around 4 percent.

adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said, "Although by far not good enough, 2023 ended better than what I had expected at the beginning of the year. Despite losing a lot of Yeezy revenue and a very conservative sell-in strategy, we managed to have flat revenues. We expected to have a substantial negative operating result, but achieved an operating profit of 268 million euros. .. With the exception of the US, we now have healthy inventories everywhere."

adidas said its Executive and Supervisory Boards will recommend paying a stable dividend of 0.70 euros per dividend-entitled share to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on May 16.

Looking ahead for fiscal 2024, adidas expects to generate an operating profit of around 500 million euros, compared to 268 million euros in 2023.

The company expects currency-neutral sales to grow at a mid-single-digit rate in 2024. The top-line guidance assumes that adidas will sell the remaining Yeezy inventory at cost.

Excluding the Yeezy revenues in both years, the top-line guidance reflects currency-neutral growth at a high-single-digit rate in the underlying adidas business.

Currency-neutral revenues in the underlying adidas business, excluding the Yeezy revenues in both years, are expected to grow significantly in all markets except North America. Currency-neutral sales in North America are expected to decline at a mid-single-digit rate in 2024.

Adidas said it sees some growth already in the first quarter, but growth is expected to be stronger in the second half of the year.

In its fourth quarter, net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to 379 million euros from last year's 512 million euros.

Loss per share was 2.13 euros, compared to loss of 2.87 euros per share a year ago.

Net loss from continuing operations amounted to 401 million euros or 2.36 euros per share, narrower than last year's loss of 482 million euros or 2.69 euros per share.

adidas recorded an operating loss of 377 million euros, narrower than prior year's operating loss of 724 million euros. This resulted in a negative operating margin of 7.8 percent, compared to negative operating margin of 13.9 percent a year earlier.

Revenues declined 8 percent to 4.81 billion euros from last year's 5.21 billion euros. Currency-neutral revenues in the fourth quarter declined 2 percent.

Despite the significant Yeezy impact, currency-neutral footwear sales were up 8 percent in the fourth quarter driven by strong double-digit growth in Originals and Skateboarding.

Apparel revenues declined 13 percent, which was mainly the result of a significant decline in Football due to strong jersey sales in the prior year's quarter related to the FIFA Football World Cup 2022.

Sales of accessories declined 1 percent mainly related to difficult comparisons with the prior year due to the FIFA Football World Cup in 2022.

In the fourth quarter, revenues in DTC concept stores were up double digits, and the adidas full-price sell-out on own e-commerce platforms was up 40 percent.

In Germany, adidas shares were trading at 185.72 euros, down 3.64 percent.

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