Adidas cuts 2012 sales forecast

Adidas AG, the world’s second-biggest sporting-goods maker, cut its sales forecast for the year on lower sales expectations for its Reebok brand.

The retailer now expects sales to rise at a “high-single- digit” rate on a currency-neutral basis, compared with a previous forecast of growth approaching 10 percent. The Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company cited lower sales expectations at Reebok. Adidas maintained its forecast for net income growth of 15 percent to 17 percent this year as it gets more sales from emerging markets and raises prices.

The sales forecast downgrade “may have a slight negative effect, but I am not overly worried as they maintained their earnings guidance,” said Sebastian Frericks, an analyst at Bankhaus Metzler in Frankfurt. “U.S. sales were really weak in the third quarter, probably because of Reebok.”

Reebok has weighed on Adidas’s growth since it was acquired in 2006. Sales at the brand declined in each of the three years after the acquisition, while the discovery of “commercial irregularities” at Reebok in India caused the sporting-goods maker to cut its guidance for wholesale revenue this year.

Net income rose 14 percent to 344 million euros ($439 million), Adidas said today. That beat the 326.7 million-euro average estimate of 11 analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales climbed 11 percent to 4.17 billion euros, compared with the 4.16 billion-euro average estimate of 19 analysts. Revenue gained 4 percent on a currency-adjusted basis.

Sales in North America fell 5 percent on a currency-neutral basis while they jumped 19 percent in European emerging markets.