Fitness financials: Sports Club reports Q4 profit gain, but FY loss, plus adidas, Puma

Sports Club reports Q4 profit gain, but FY loss
The Sports Club Company (Pink Sheets: SCYL) swung to a fourth-quarter profit after taking a loss last year from an impairment charge.

Revenues for the fourth quarter were $14.8 million compared to $14.2 million for the same period last year. Net income was $238,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $20.5 million, or $1.06 per diluted share, last year. Results included an impairment charge of $18.6 million.

For the full year, revenues increased 4.6 percent to $58.7 million compared to $56.2 million in 2005. Although significantly lower than last year, the company did report a loss of $6.4 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, in 2006, compared to a loss of $24.4 million, or $1.27 per diluted share, in 2005.

During the year, the company sold five of its nine sports and fitness clubs to Millennium Partners, a major stockholder of the company. The net sales proceeds in excess of the carrying value of the sold assets of $23.7 million, was recorded as a capital contribution.

adidas, Reebok to consolidate centers
adidas (ADSG.DE) and its recently acquired Reebok brand will close sports apparel and sneaker distribution centers in Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky, and move those operations to an expanded center in South Carolina.

The company said the “vast majority” of the 375 jobs to be cut at the four distribution centers due to be closed will be shifted to Spartanburg, S.C., where construction is to begin shortly on a center of nearly 2 million square feet. The consolidation is designed to streamline the far-flung distribution operations of adidas and Reebok, it added.

WSJ reports PPR eyeing Puma takeover
French luxury goods group PPR is reportedly in talks to buy a stake in Puma (PUM.DE) from a major shareholder with a view to a possible takeover bid for the sporting goods company, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

The article said two members of the Herz family who control a quarter of Puma’s stock were near a deal to agree to sell that stake to PPR.

The report, citing unidentified persons close to the matter, said PPR wanted to buy the stake and then make an offer for the remainder of Puma that would value the company at more than EUR 5.4 billion (USD $7.2 billion).

Puma shares jumped April 5 on talk of a bid, rising 10.3 percent in Frankfurt to EUR 314.25 (USD $420.67). Markets were closed Friday in Germany for the Easter holiday.

(Conversion of Euros into U.S. dollars is for information only, is not necessarily relative to earnings, and is based on the currency rate as of April 6.)

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