Adidas is looking ahead to a year of slower growth as the global downturn bites, it said on March 04 after reporting forecast-beating results for the final quarter of 2008. The worlds second-biggest sporting goods maker after Nike said it expects group sales to fall at up to mid-single-digit rates in 2009 and sees margins, net income and earnings per share declining due to higher operating costs.
It still plans to pay an unchanged dividend of 0.50 euro for 2008. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a rise. "We could now take the easy route followed by many other companies and give no guidance at all for 2009 and just wait and hope for the best," said Adidas Chief Executive Herbert Hainer. Germanys unemployment rate fell below that in the United States in January for the first time in 16 years and Europes largest economy is expected to suffer its biggest contraction this year since World War Two.