In the three months to the end of June, net profit at Adidas fell to £7.7 million from £98.6 million last year, mainly due to a lower operating profit which has been hit by currency devaluation effects.

The earlier figures were boosted by the Euro 2008 football championships and the Beijing Olympics.

Adidas group chairman and chief executive Herbert Hainer was more confident however for its second half.

He said: “The good news is that we did not see any fundamental deterioration in our business.

"Our financials for the first half of 2009 are exactly in line with the guidance we provided in May – if not a little better.

"As a result, I believe we have seen the bottom in our financial performance this year.”

Adidas, which is a £80 million tier one sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, has also almost completed a restructuring programme aimed at achieving £85 million in annual savings, Hainer said.

A breakdown of the figures showed that first half sales of the Adidas and Reebok brands fell by three and two percent respectively, but that the TaylorMade-Adidas Golf division turned in an eight per cent increase, owing to its acquisition of the Ashworth apparel company.

On a geographical basis, "growth in North America and in Latin America was offset by declines in most major European and Asian markets," the group said.

The market seemed to back Hainer's judgement as the world’s second-largest sporting-goods maker rose to a ten-month high in Frankfurt trading with investors encouraged by the less than predicted fall in profits.

The shares gained 5.9 per cent.

In its first half, Adidas group revenues fell two per cent to £4.2 billion.