Puma trips over strong euro: earnings statement

Puma, the German maker of sportswear and equipment, said today that profits fell in the first quarter, hit by volatile exchange rates in countries like Russia and India.
Puma said in a statement that its net profit fell by 29.2 per cent top 35.6 million euros (USD 48.8 million) in the period from January to March.
Underlying or operating profit was down 25.8 per cent at 58.6 million euros on a 7.1 per cent drop in sales to 725.7 million euros.
The group's first-quarter sales and operating margin were "in line with our expectations, yet negatively impacted by adverse currency affects," said chief executive Bjorn Gulden.

"Currency volatility in Russia, Turkey, North America, Latin America, India and Japan had a negative impact on sales in euro terms," he explained.
Adjusted for such factors, sales would have decreased by just 0.5 percent in the January-March period.

Nevertheless, Puma said it was sticking to its full-year targets.
"2014 will be a turnaround year for Puma," said CEO Gulden.
"Based on the results of the first quarter and our assumptions at the beginning of the year -- which foresaw stable currencies -- our expectations for full year net sales and both underlying and net profit remain unchanged," he said.

Puma expects sales to remain flat and underlying and net profit to amount to 5.0 per cent and 3.0 per cent of sales respectively.
But Gulden cautioned: "Given the current currency volatility, which is weighing negatively on our results, there may be a correspondingly negative impact of around" 0.5 percentage point on the underlying and net profit margin for the full year.