Jan 28, 2016 According to media reports, German sportswear company Adidas AG reportedly ended its 11-year sponsorship deal with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Adidas, the biggest sponsor of the sport’s governing body, discontinued their contract as a result of the doping and corruption scandal that has engulfed the sport.
Commenting on the situation, Matthew Beesley, head of global equities at Henderson Global Investors said:
“If this is true and Adidas are pulling out on their sponsorship with the IAAF this will clearly be a sign of them baulking in the face of what has been a continual stream of very negative news flow in the athletics industry which of course is potentially important for Adidas given where they sit relative to Nike. More interesting I think as an equity investor is the appointment of a new chief executive at Adidas, the former CEO of Henkel. Adidas has been a company that has generally lagged Nike both in terms of profitability returns and indeed growth. So the opportunity for Adidas to steal a march on Nike under new leadership, perhaps reposition itself away from some of these controversies as relates to athletics, clearly could be quite meaningful”