After going public in 1997, ANTA Sports Products’ market capitalization recently exceeded 70 billion Hong Kong dollars ($9 billion), nearly six times its initial market value.

The company, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) on July 10, launched a charity program to improve physical education in underdeveloped areas with funding of 500 million yuan ($73.5 million). The anniversary date will become the Anta charity day and will be honored every year.

Ding Shizhong, chairman and CEO of Anta, said that the company set development goals to realize by 2020: selling 100 million pairs of shoes and 130 million items of clothing; reaching an annual compound growth rate in sales turnover of 15 to 20 percent; and expanding the number of its stores to 11,000.

Ding also expressed hope that Anta would move into the high-end market through mergers and acquisitions.

In the past decade, Anta grew from a traditional privately owned enterprise to a public company of global competitiveness with a modern governance structure. Its profits increased nearly four-fold from 2.99 billion yuan in 2007 to 13.35 billion yuan in 2016. The company has paid 10 billion yuan in tax in the last 10 years, including 2 billion in 2016. Its dividend payout ratio has been standing above 60 percent, with 8 billion yuan of dividends being paid to investors.

By the end of 2016, Anta owned more than 9,500 stores in large and small cities across China. It improved its product lines to cater to different client groups. It acquired Italian sports company FILA’s China business in 2009, and then acquired UK outdoor sports brand Sprandi in 2016. In the same year, it established a joint-venture with Japanese winter sports gear company Descente with a plan to open 10 stores in China to promote high-end outdoor sport gear.

Anta Chairman Ding Shizhong (middle) at the Simply Fantastic celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary of its initial public offering on July 10. [Photo provided to China Daily]