Chinese sportswear may be hard turf to defend

Xtep International Holdings

11/07/2018 10:33

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Sharon Lam
    HONG KONG, July 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - As Nike and
Adidas duke it out at the World Cup in Russia, a bigger matchup
looms. China’s market for sneakers and kit is growing quickly,
and local rivals like $14 bln ANTA have had a good run. Younger
and richer consumers, though, could start giving foreign brands
an advantage.

    Full view will be published shortly.
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/sharonlamhk
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    - Adidas sponsored Belgium and 11 other teams at the 2018
World Cup, while Nike outfitted 10 of the 32 contenders,
including the three other semi-finalists, Croatia, England and
France.
    - Nike and Adidas have increased their combined market share
in China by 10.5 percentage points over the past five years,
while domestic companies ANTA Sports Products, Li Ning and Xtep
International Holdings have lost 4.4 percentage points,
according to Euromonitor.
    - A report by accounting research firm GMT Research
published on June 12 said ANTA and some of its local rivals
exhibited "fraud-like traits," such as high profitability
despite low selling prices, which are similar to previous cases
of fraud in the Chinese sportswear industry.
    - ANTA and others named in the report hit back at the
findings. ANTA said on June 14 that GMT’s report was “inaccurate
and misleading,” while Xtep said it contained factual errors and
unfounded speculation. 
    - SIGN UP FOR BREAKINGVIEWS EMAIL ALERTS: http://bit.ly/BVsubscribe

    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Soccer—Chinese World Cup sponsorship not about filling gaps—FIFA
     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1U40CO
Nike favoured to beat soccer juggernaut Adidas at World Cup   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1TZ1BP
Chinese sportswear firms reject allegations of improper
accounting     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1TH2V5
BREAKINGVIEWS- Adidas catchup race has further to run   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1QW1ZG
BREAKINGVIEWS- Nike supplier risks own goal with $1.4 bln buyout
    urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1PH0R5
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb and Katrina Hamlin)
 ((sharon.lam@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
sharon.lam.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))