Diadora Sport, the new company created to take over the industrial activities of the bankrupt Italian sports group Diadora, posted a net profit of €34,000 in 2009. The business generated operating earnings before amortization (Ebitda) of €1.1 million. The relatively good results were probably achieved because of a major pruning of the staff and the absence of debt, which was not part of the takeover package.
The results were mainly achieved in the second half of the year because Diadora Sport only reached an agreement with Diadora’s liquidators to rent the business in June 2009. It eventually bought Diadora’s rump activities on Jan. 22, 2010
Diadora Sport’s results were released with those of its parent company, the holding company LIR owned by Mario Moretti Polegato and his son Enrico. LIR has a 100 percent stake in Diadora Sport. It also controls 71.1 percent of the Italian shoemaker Geox and has other interests in property, publishing and finance.
The release said that Diadora’s Ebitda margin stood at 4.1 percent of sales, indicating revenues of about €27 million for the period under LIR’s control.
Adding up the results of Geox, LIR’s net consolidated profit fell to €66.1 million in 2009 from €121.3 million a year earlier, but its net cash pile increased to €405 million from €350 million.
This year, LIR’s real estate unit, Domicapital, bought a property company, owner of Diadora Sport’s head office and logistics center, as well as buildings in the historical areas of some Italian and foreign cities.
