Adidas net profit down in 2012

German sportswear and equipment maker Adidas said Thursday that one-off writedowns hit its bottom line in 2012, but underlying profits increased due to higher sales. Adidas said in a statement that its year-end net profit declined by 14.2 percent to 526 million euros ($683 million) last year. But the group said the figure included goodwill writedowns of 265 million euros largely related to "adjusted growth assumptions for the Reebok brand, especially in North America, Latin America and Brazil." The group also noted that it had had to restate its 2011 results following the discovery of financial irregularities at Reebok India and that the figure for its 2011 net profit had been reduced by 58 million euros. The goodwill writedowns actually pushed Adidas into the red in the fourth quarter alone, when it turned in a net loss of 272 million euros compared with a profit of 3.0 million euros. Excluding the writedowns, the fourth-quarter loss amounted to just 7.0 million euros and full-year 2012 net profit actually grew by 29 percent to 791 million euros, Adidas calculated. Taking 2012 as a whole, operating profit slipped by 3.4 percent to 920 million euros while sales jumped 11.7 percent to 14.883 billion euros. "2012 has been another successful year for the Adidas group," said chief executive Herbert Hainer. "Our products and brands were again at the fore, not only being the most visible at the year’s major sports events, but also enjoying several important market share victories along the way," he boasted. Looking ahead to the current year, Adidas said it expected sales to "increase at a mid-single-digit rate on a currency-neutral basis in 2013." And net profit would rise to 890-920 million euros, it predicted. Investors took cheer from the forecast and Adidas shares were the second-highest gainers on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Thursday, adding 3.8 percent while the overall blue-chip DAX 30 index was showing a gain of just 0.26 percent.