Germany : Adidas Hunts US Acquisitions To Match Nike

The head of German sportswear giant Adidas-Salomon AG on Monday said his firm is hunting acquisitions in the United States in order to catch up with its main rival Nike Inc.

But chairman and CEO Herbert Hainer told Der Spiegel it had not yet found a suitable acquisition and was under no pressure to do so.

"Nike's turnover is around three billion euros bigger than ours. In
most of the world we are at the same level. The gap is America, and we have to close it there too," he told the magazine.

"Maybe Adidas can reduce the gap under its own steam but it cannot catch up. So we are also looking at what companies we could acquire."

Separately on Monday, Hainer said Adidas' Argentinean subsidiary has nearly doubled its turnover in 2002 despite the country's economic crisis.

He told the newspaper La Nacion the unit it expected to post a profit rise this year and sees double figure annual growth rates in the medium-term.