Chinese Sportswear Brand Anta Reports First-Half Net Profit Of $130M, Up 28% From '13

Shanghai-based China Business News reported Chinese sportswear brand Anta Sports on Thursday unveiled its first-half net profit at 803M yuan ($130.5M), up 28.3% from the "same period a year earlier, after it closed more than 1,000 shops over the past two years as part of restructuring efforts," according to the WANT CHINA TIMES. Anta Chair & CEO Ding Shizhong attributed rising profits to its "efficiency in upgrading and reorganizing its shops." First-half revenues grew 22.4% from a year earlier to 4.12B yuan ($670M), posting a "gross profit margin of 45.1%, up 4 percentage points from a year earlier." Currently, Anta totals 7,701 shops, "down 56 from last year," of which its children sports brand shops "grew 106 from end-2013 to 987," and FILA shops rose from 25 to 441 since the end of '13 (WANT CHINA TIMES, 8/15).