Anta’s interim net profit beats forecasts, rising 28.5 per cent on higher sales of sportswear

Anta Sports, China’s largest sportswear firm, reported better-than-expected profit growth for the first half of 2017 as the company said its multi-brand strategy delivered market share gains in both the mass and high end sports wear markets.

Net profit rose 28.5 per cent to 1.5 billion yuan (US$217.8 million), or 0.56 yuan per share, from last year’s 1.1 billion yuan, said the Fujian-based company. The result beat the 1.3 billion yuan consensus forecast of analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Revenue for the period increased 19.2 per cent to 7. 3 billion yuan, from 6.1 billion yuan in 2016, in line with analyst consensus estimates of 7.2 billion yuan.

Anta Sports attributed the net profit growth to surging demand for sports wear products from Chinese consumers as well as its multi-brand strategy.

“Despite the intense competition within the Chinese sportswear market, our ‘single-focus, multi-brand and omni-channel’ strategy continues to deliver breakthroughs in terms of market share and

profitability,” Anta’s chairman Ding Shizhong said in a statement.

When asked at Tuesday’s results briefing if Anta had plans to acquire more overseas brands such as German sports wear maker Puma, Ding said the company welcomed any suitable target brands but would not confirm individual deals.