BERLIN: German sports giant Adidas said Wednesday it had agreed to sell its golfing brands TaylorMade, Adams Golf and Ashworth to US fund KPS Capital Partners for US$425 million (390 million euros).
The deal came just a day after the sport’s world number two Rory McIlroy signed an equipment deal worth US$100 million over a decade with TaylorMade.
Adidas said it expected the KPS deal to be completed before the end of 2017. The sale comes a year after Adidas said it wanted to offload its golfing business which was damping profit margins.
“We are concentrating clearly on our primary competencies in footwear and sports clothing and on our two main brands Adidas and Reebok,” Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted said in a statement announcing the sale.
Though it remains the global number one player in its sector, TaylorMade saw sales dip one percent last year to 892 million euros amid falling player numbers in the United States.
Dropping its golfing brands will land Adidas with an exceptional hit to its 2017 accounts of around 100 million euros.--AFP