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Li Ning shares hit new high as sales surge amid Chinese boycott of Western sports brands over Xinjiang cotton row
- China Lining, Li Ning’s premium fashion arm, saw its sales on Tmall jump 419 per cent during the Labour Day holiday period, driving the company’s share price to a record high
- Western brands including H&M and Nike faced a storm of criticism from customers and Chinese officials over their allegations of forced labour used in cotton production
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Shares of Chinese sportswear maker Li Ning Company hit a historic high as sales during the May day holiday soared fivefold amid a nationalistic buying frenzy following the controversy over cotton produced in the Xinjiang region.
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China Lining, Li Ning’s premium fashion arm, saw its sales on the country’s largest e-commerce platform, Tmall, jump 419 per cent between April 27 and May 3 from the same period a year earlier, according to data from Credit Suisse. The five-day Labour Day holiday in China started on May 1.
That followed an even bigger year-on-year increase, of 815 per cent, in online sales in April, the investment bank said in a note issued on May 5.
Fuelled by the surging sales, Li Ning Company, the eponymous sportswear brand of China’s best-known Olympic gymnast, saw its share price hit a record high of HK$72.95 on Friday morning. They closed at HK$68.50 on Friday.
The shares of the Hong Kong-listed company have climbed 52 per cent since March 24, when a statement from H&M came to light in which the Swedish clothing group raised concerns over cotton allegedly produced using forced labour among the Uygur population in Xinjiang.
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