Monday, February 22, 2021
KfW loan repaid
Adidas pays a dividend again
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Last year, Adidas tapped the state credit bank KfW. In return, the group cut the dividend for the shareholders. With the complete reimbursement of the financial aid, the shareholders should participate in the profits again.
The world’s second largest sporting goods company, Adidas, wants to pay a dividend again for the past year. The plan is to distribute EUR 3.00 per share, a total of EUR 585 million, announced Adidas. “This proposal reflects the strengthened financial profile of the company as well as the management’s positive outlook for the year 2021,” stated the board of directors.
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Last year, the Franconian group had to cancel the actually planned dividend of 3.85 euros because it needed a billion-dollar bridging loan from the state bank KfW during the corona crisis. The repayment of the 500 million euros ultimately called up in autumn made a dividend possible again.
Adidas recently announced that it would be separating from its subsidiary Reebok after 15 years. It was concluded that both alone can better exploit their growth potential, it said. The Franconian group bought Reebok in 2006 for more than three billion euros – in the hope of being able to stand up to its larger competitor Nike in the USA. But the expectations never came true.
Despite a reorientation towards the fitness wave, the US brand never achieved the growth rates of the core brand Adidas. With 1.75 billion euros, Reebok only contributed a good seven percent to group sales in 2019. Reebok could bring in around one billion euros – the brand was last in the books at 842 million euros after a further write-down.
The plans are to be presented on March 10th. Among other things, it is likely to be about accelerating the online strategy that Adidas had saved from a major slump in the corona pandemic in view of closed stores. The group is already turning over more than four billion euros – bypassing the retail trade – through its internet shop.
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