Adidas will donate tennis profits from partnership with Kanye West – 05/12/2023 – Market

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After Adidas publicly exposed its crossroads over what to do with a stock of 1.2 billion of euros (R$ 6.5 billion) in sneakers produced under the broken partnership with Kanye West, the brand came to a decision: it will sell the items and donate part of the profit.

The announcement was made this Thursday (11) by CEO Bjørn Gulden, who did not reveal whether the rapper, now known as Ye, will still receive a percentage of sales revenue.

“What we’re trying to do is sell some of the inventory and donate the money to organizations that are helping us and that have been hit by Kanye’s remarks,” he said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Understand: The lucrative deal that created the Yeezy brand in 2015 was scrapped by the manufacturer in October last year after the singer posted anti-Semitic comments on social media.

Without the 500 million euros of estimated profits for the stock that will now be sold, the CEO had said in March that this will be “a year of transition” for the brand, with operating profit close to zero.

• At the time, the executive said that Adidas was considering a series of options on what to do with the remaining stock of sneakers, including their destruction.

• On Thursday, Gulden said that “burning millions of pairs doesn’t make sense”.

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‘Green Lithium’ in the Jequitinhonha Valley

One of the poorest regions in Brazil has started to produce one of the most valued and strategic metals in the world.

• It is in the Jequitinhonha Valley, in Minas Gerais, that Canadian mining company Sigma Lithium began exploring and producing lithium less than a month ago.

• The region that brings together 55 municipalities concentrated along a river of the same name has one of the lowest HDI (Human Development Index) in the state.

Understand: Lithium is a very important raw material in the context of the global energy transition. It is present in lithium-ion batteries, used in electric cars, and is essential to expand the energy storage capacity in other systems.

• The demand for the metal should increase around 400% until 2040, according to the IEA (International Energy Agency).

Remember: We explained last month how Latin America is a region that has become the subject of a geopolitical dispute between China and the US.

• Interest is mainly in mines in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, countries whose reserves are greater than Brazil.

Sigma claims produce green lithium, whose extraction has low impact on the environment. For this, it uses energy from a nearby hydroelectric plant and has the option of buying wind energy produced in the Northeast.

Consolidation: after a spike in prices at the end of last year, lithium is back at the level of November 2021 and ended up stirring up mergers and acquisitions in the sector.

• On Wednesday (10), the Australian Allkem and the American Livent, two major producers, announced an agreement to unite their businesses.

• The company resulting from the merger will be the third largest global producer of lithium, with a market value of $10.6 billion (R$ 52.6 billion), according to the Bloomberg agency.

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Minimum inequality in 11 years

Income inequality ended 2022 at the lowest level in the historical series, which has data since 2012, according to IBGE data released this Thursday.

Which explains: it is a sum of the expansion of the Auxílio Brasil to R$ 600, on the eve of the 2022 elections, in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, with the resumption of the labor market, according to the institute.

The Special Reporter Sheet Fernando Canzian analyzes that the drop in inequality only occurred because Brazilians are increasingly dependent on social programs in an economy that grows little and delivers low-quality jobs.

For Marcelo Neri, from the FGV, inequality indicators tend to continue falling in 2023, given the maintenance of the value of the Auxílio Brasil (today Bolsa Família) with additional forecasts in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

In numbers: in 2022, the Gini index of per capita household income (per person) fell to 0.518the series lowest in 11 years, after rising to 0.544 in 2021.

• The indicator ranges from 0 (maximum equality) to 1 (maximum inequality).

In real terms (adjusted for inflation), the per capita household income of the poorest half of the population rose 18% last year for BRL 537 a month.

• The average income of the richest 1% of Brazilians was BRL 17,447retreat from 0.3% compared to 2021.

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