Puma has been doing far better during the crisis that it’s natural rival Adidas, but it’s still had to request a loan from the state. The company reported that its first-quarter sales fell just 1.5 percent to €1.3 billion. Profits were 60 percent down to just €36 million. By comparison at Adidas did far more poorly with sales falling by 20 percent during the first quarter to €4.7 billion. The daily Handelsblatt writes that a big reason for this is that Adidas depends on China for sales far more than Puma does and that all of its stores in China were closed between January and February. Puma managed to secure loans of €900 million in order to shore up its cash flow position including a €625 million loan from the state development bank KfW with the remainder coming from a consortium of 11 other banks. Adidas by comparison recently agreed on a load of more than €3 billion of which 2.4 billion will come from the development bank. Both companies have taken the politically correct decision to cut their dividend as well as the salaries of the top management.
