Li Ning , one of China’s largest athletic brands named after the triple-gold Olympic gymnast, said on Friday that the country’s recent Covid-19 outbreaks were adversely affecting sales. Sales growth had narrowed from 35 to 40 per cent earlier in the first quarter to 15-20 per cent this week, Terence Tsang Wah-fung, the company’s chief financial officer, said during a results briefing. Revenue growth and profit margin for 2022 were expected to be 15 to 25 per cent and 15 to 20 per cent, respectively, he added. “Since the beginning of this month, some repeated pandemic outbreaks in various regions of the country have brought about uncertainty to our business,” said Kosaka Takeshi, the company’s joint CEO who is also called Qian Wei. The company did well last year and attributed the higher sales to China’s effective pandemic prevention and control policies, higher sports awareness amid the Tokyo Olympic Games and then the Beijing Winter Olympics, and increasing recognition and support for domestic sports brands among Chinese consumers. iPhone screen maker and SPAC backed by Olympic gymnast seek Hong Kong IPOs Li Ning reported an almost 1.4 times jump in net profit to 4.01 billion yuan (US$630.63 million) for the year ended 31 December, 2021. The board has recommended the payment of a final dividend of 45.97 fen per ordinary share. In the past year or two, the company had accumulated a lot of experience on how it should respond after the outbreak of the pandemic, Takeshi said, adding that it would prepare for uncertainty cautiously. Li Ning did not take questions about North Korea on Friday. The US’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) banned Li Ning’s products from the American market on Tuesday, “unless the importer provides clear and convincing evidence” that there was no forced labour involved. Under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), goods made wholly or in part by North Koreans anywhere in the world are banned in the United States, unless clear evidence is provided they were not made with forced labour. “CBP receives numerous allegations of forced labour from a variety of sources, including government partners, reports by non-government organisations, media coverage, first-hand accounts and the general public,” a spokesperson said. “We will continue to use the resources at our disposal to evaluate these allegations and to identify and prevent goods made with forced labour from entering the US commerce.” Li Ning seeks US$1.3 billion to fund overseas plans as sales at home slow CBP does not disclose sources of information, investigative methods or other information that may jeopardise the safety of witnesses or otherwise compromise ongoing investigations, the spokesperson said. Furthermore, CBP cannot publicly disclose confidential business information This is the second time that CBP has taken action in relation to CAATSA since 2018, the spokesperson said. “The first action was instituted in 2020 and not publicised.” As CBP uncovers additional evidence through these investigations, the agency will take appropriate action. Chinese sportswear maker’s shares surge as Xinjiang cotton row drives sales “During the operation and review process, the group has not discovered any cases of forced labour in the supplier management system,” Li Ning said in an exchange filing on Wednesday.