Chinese Sportswear Brand Li Ning Suffers Annual Loss For Third Consecutive Year

Chinese sportswear brand Li Ning announced its "third consecutive annual loss as it continues to bear the costs of a restructuring," according to Patti Waldmeir of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The company, "which has struggled to shake off the image of a producer of cheap sports shoes that are little more than western knock-offs," announced a net loss of $125M for '14 but said sales increased 16% year-on-year to 6.7B ($1.08B), with "revenue growth accelerating" to 23% for the second half of the year. Elyse Wang of Haitong Securities said, "The results do show improvement and are slightly better than market expectation but it's still hard to say they've accomplished a turnround." The company on Thursday also announced the appointment of Founder Li Ning as "interim CEO" while the "search continues for a new chief executive." Li: "We still haven't found a proper candidate yet. That's why the board thought it would be more suitable for me to be the acting CEO" (FT, 3/19).