Li Ning takes a U-turn

• Published 11 Jun 2009

China's leading domestic sports brand is shying away from the international market and looking back home as a driver of growth.

China's leading domestic sports brand Li Ning (2331:HKG) is looking a little snookered. It once dreamed of becoming a major international player – with hopes of making it into the top-five global sports brands by 2018 and deriving 20% of revenues from overseas. But on losing against Adidas to become an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics and aware that it still hasn't so much as dented the international market – 99.2% of sales came from the Chinese mainland last year – it has gone for a strategy U-turn.

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