By Linda Pasquini and Helen Reid
BERLIN, March 4 (Reuters) – Adidas shares sank as much as 7% in early trading after the German sportswear group issued a profit outlook for 2026 that missed market expectations, overshadowing news that it extended CEO Bjorn Gulden’s contract to the end of 2030.
The company forecast operating profit of around 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) this year, implying a margin of 8.5%-8.8%, below the 10% target it had set, according to RBC analysts.
The lower outlook was due partly to U.S. tariffs on imports and the weak dollar, which Adidas said would knock 400 million euros off earnings this year.
The extension of Gulden’s term appeared to be a vote of confidence in his strategy for Adidas, which reported a loss in 2023 but has since recovered.
Gulden took over at the start of 2023 with a mandate to steady Adidas after its split with rapper Ye over his antisemitic comments which triggered a crisis, revealing how much the brand had relied on the Yeezy sneaker line.
Adidas also proposed Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris as its new chairman to replace Thomas Rabe, who has faced shareholder criticism for holding too many other executive roles.
SALES IN NORTH AMERICA HIT BY WEAK DOLLAR
Overall, Adidas said it expected currency-adjusted sales to keep growing at a high-single-digit rate in 2027 and 2028. It reported 2025 sales of 24.8 billion euros and operating profit of 2.06 billion.
Sales in North America, Adidas’ second-biggest market in terms of sales, grew 10% in currency-adjusted terms last year but were down 1% in euro terms, dragged by a weaker dollar.
Adidas has managed to keep discounts under control and sell “the right product in the right amount” across its markets, Gulden said in a statement.
Management proposed a dividend increase of 40% to 2.80 euros per share for 2025. It had announced a share buyback of up to 1 billion euros in January alongside preliminary 2025 results.
($1 = 0.8625 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Huebner in Munich and Linda Pasquini in Gdansk; Additional reporting by Helen Reid in London; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Tomasz Janowski and Bernadette Baum)
