PUMA AG ANNOUNCES ITS CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE 1ST QUARTER OF 2004

Financial Highlights 1st Quarter:

• Branded sales increase 22%
• Consolidated sales achieve strong growth of nearly 30% – Apparel sales up 39%
• Gross profit margin reaches record level of 51.7%
• Profitability exceeds expectations – EBT 62.6% above last year
• Improvement in EPS – €5.02 versus €3.08 in Q 1

Outlook

• Future orders up by more than 20% or 24% on a currency neutral basis
• Management increases full year guidance – sales growth between 15% and 20% and earnings growth of more than 30% expected
  
  

Sales and earnings review

Consolidated sales up nearly 30%

2004 started very positively with Q1 consolidated sales growth of 29.3%, translating to sales of €443.8 million versus €343.2 million last year. On a currency neutral basis, sales were up 33.2%. Excluding the first-time consolidation of PUMA Japan (initial consolidation started April 1, 2003), total organic growth of 21% (currency adjusted 24.9%) was realized.

As expected, Apparel momentum continued on a very high level and sales recorded organic growth of 39.1% (currency adjusted 42.3%) reaching €111.2 million. Footwear sales grew by 22.7% (currency adjusted 26.1%) to €305.9 million and Accessories increased 90.9% (currency adjusted 93.6%) to €26.7 million. Excluding the first-time consolidation, Footwear was up 18.3% and Accessories 30.6% (currency adjusted).

All regions contributed positively to the performance. Europe was up 22.9%, the Americas achieved growth of 24.4% (9.2% in Euro currency), Asia/Pacific increased by 251.8% or 26.4% excluding Japan and the Africa/Middle East region realized an increase of 49.9%.