Adidas signed an agreement with billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group to help develop soccer and basketball in China. This comes as the German company seeks to capitalise on increasing interest in sports and fitness in the world's most populous nation.

Adidas is making an increasingly rare commitment to China by a consumer brand at a time when food and drink companies and luxury labels are struggling there. China’s government has pledged to build a five trillion-yuan sports industry by 2025. Performance and sports-inspired shoe sales in China are forecast to grow to $18.5 billion in 2020, according to Euromonitor International.

Greater China contributed more than a quarter of Adidas’s earnings before overhead costs last year and it’s the company’s most profitable market.

– (Bloomberg)