Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, friends of adidas AG. On behalf of my colleagues on the executive board, I'd like to welcome you all to our 2013 Annual General Meeting here at the City Hall in Fürth. I also welcome everybody following this AGM online via our live webcast. I greatly appreciate your interest in the development of the adidas Group. I'm able to report to you today on yet another successful year for the adidas Group. 2012 was a year with major sports events. Our brands and products again took center stage both at the Olympic Games in London and at the European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Thanks to our unrivaled presence at these and many other sports events, we enjoyed major market share wins, and we significantly improved our margins, again, generating outstanding cash flow.
All this, ladies and gentlemen, shows you the excellent value we are creating by consistently pursuing our strategic business plan, Route 2015. At the outset, and before going into detail on the key facts and figures of the past financial year, I'd like to share two personal observations with you. What were, for me, the most memorable highlights of 2012, and what did I experience as the biggest challenge in 2012? Well, my own personal highlight was most definitely the London Olympic Games in August 2012. It was simply amazing to see the enthusiasm with which Great Britain celebrated these games, the organization, the atmosphere and the stadiums, the outstanding achievements of the adidas-sponsored Team GB. Everything was just perfect. Even the weather was good. I'm very proud that adidas, as the official sportswear partner, had the chance to contribute to the phenomenal success of the London Olympics.
Adidas equipped over 80,000 volunteers with sustainably manufactured products. We kitted out 3,000 athletes and were represented in 25 of the 26 Olympic disciplines. In addition, adidas worked with 11 national Olympic committees and implemented an award-winning communication campaign, Take the Stage, featuring British superstars such as David Beckham, Jessica Ennis, and Sir Chris Hoy. See for yourselves how David Beckham surprised his fans in London. Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, life isn't just about highlights. Day in, day out, we have to take on and rise to all sorts of challenges. The biggest challenge for me within the adidas Group last year was the challenge presented by the commercial irregularities we discovered at Reebok in India, which we already discussed here at the AGM in detail a year ago.
Former employees and external business partners inflicted damage on us in India with an extremely high level of criminal energy. We followed up vigorously and swiftly on the matter by conducting a thorough internal and external investigation. In addition, the police and government authorities also initiated investigations. The key findings from our internal investigations clearly suggest that our former management in India had been inflating Reebok's sales and profits for several years. They also operated four warehouses that were not declared in the official accounting records. Getting to the bottom of these matters tied up considerable management capacities in 2012. I'd therefore like to take this opportunity to expressly thank our new management team in India, which has dealt with these matters with a high degree of personal commitment. Based on the findings of our investigations, we restated our accounts in accordance with International Accounting Standard number 8.
Among other things, this has led to a reduction of net income attributable to shareholders of EUR 58 million for 2011 compared to what we had previously reported. Furthermore, the impact these effects had on prior periods meant that shareholders' equity in the 2011 opening balance sheet had to be reduced by EUR 153 million. These changes are explained in detail in our annual report, which is available in the foyer. As unpleasant as these irregularities at Reebok India Company are, I'm convinced we have diligently completed our efforts to uncover all the wrongdoings, while at the same time laying the foundation for a healthy and profitable Reebok brand in India going forward. The adidas brand was not affected by these irregularities in any way whatsoever. Let me return now to more gratifying topics, namely the key financial figures for 2012.
I'm happy to report a positive development across the board. We grew adidas Group sales by an impressive EUR 1.6 billion. That's an increase of 12% in euros and 6% in currency neutral terms. EUR 14.9 billion in revenues, that's a new record high for the adidas Group. As you know, we are committed to growing our bottom line faster than our top line, and in 2012, we impressively succeeded in doing so. We have improved earnings attributable to you, our shareholders, by 29% to EUR 791 million. Also, a new record result. However, this figure does not include the goodwill impairment losses reported at year-end 2012, which I will explain in more detail in a few moments. The 2012 development of our balance sheet and cash flow was also excellent. Net cash generated from operating activities last year was 17% up versus the prior year to EUR 942 million.
This allowed us to further reduce our net borrowings, ending the year with a net cash position of EUR 448 million. This represents an improvement of EUR 358 million compared to year-end 2011, and clearly demonstrates the financial strength of the adidas Group. Of course, we want to share the group's success with you, our shareholders. For 2012, we are therefore proposing to this Annual General Meeting a dividend of EUR 1.35 per share. This is a 35% improvement on the 2011 financial year, when we paid a dividend of exactly EUR 1.00. Our proposal concerning the appropriation of retained earnings means that of the adidas AG retained earnings, which amount to EUR 606,494,956.33, a total of EUR 282,441,851 will be paid out in dividends, and the remaining amount of EUR 324,053,105.23 will be carried forward to the new financial year.
Based on our business success, the adidas AG share price also developed very positively in 2012. Over the course of the year, the adidas share gained 34%, reaching EUR 67.33, and we outperformed the DAX and our competitors in the process. On March 7th, the day we published our full year results for 2012, our share price rose by 6.6% to EUR 76.38. Following our results announcement for the first quarter of 2013 last Friday, our share price increased to a new all-time high of EUR 85.50. Yesterday, the adidas share price closed at EUR 84.61. This represents a market capitalization of almost EUR 18 billion. Ladies and gentlemen, this means the adidas Group has never before been as valuable at the time of an Annual General Meeting. There's a round of applause from the audience. This pleasing development impressively underscores your confidence in our group's positive prospects for the future.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely also on behalf of my executive board colleagues, for this confidence. A few minutes ago, I mentioned that I'd expand on the goodwill impairment we incurred at year-end 2012. Let's move on to that point. First of all, let me emphasize that impairment losses are non-cash in nature. What this means is that not a single EUR is going to flow out of our cash reserves. This is solely an accounting measure. Each year, we review the medium-term growth prospects for specific markets and segments, and also determine whether we need to reduce the book value of individual business units. At the end of 2012, we came to the conclusion that some of our cash-generating units needed to be impaired.
This was due, among other things, to the fact that we had adjusted our long-term growth targets for the Reebok brand until 2015 from 3 billion EUR to 2 billion EUR as early as September 2012. This decline at Reebok will be compensated within the group by higher growth at the adidas brand and in our TaylorMade-adidas Golf segment. The impairment losses totaled 265 million EUR. This means we reduced goodwill on our balance sheet by 17% to 1.3 billion EUR. In the overall scheme of things, from a balance sheet perspective, the negative impact on total assets was minor, at only 2%. Again, you will find all the details on our impairment expenses in our annual report. One of the adidas Group's strengths is most definitely that its growth is very broad-based.
This strength manifests itself in the fact that this broad base enables robust growth even when individual markets, brands, or segments do not develop as positively as we had hoped. In 2012, currency neutral sales again grew in all segments and in all regions. Please note that all the growth rates I'm going to mention are on a currency neutral basis, unless otherwise stated. In the wholesale segment, sales increased by 2% to 9.5 billion EUR. Sales in our retail segment rose 14% to 3.4 billion EUR. Revenues for our so-called other businesses, which include the sales of TaylorMade, adidas Golf, Rockport, Reebok, CCM Hockey, and other centrally managed brands, reached 2 billion EUR, up 17% on a year earlier. Turning now to sales development by region, revenues were again above the prior year in all our regions. Our two growth markets, Greater China and Russia, were particular standouts.
In Greater China, we clearly outperformed both our international and local competitors in 2012. While many of our competitors faced surplus capacities and declining sales, we increased our revenues in Greater China by 15% to 1.6 billion EUR. Another round of applause from the audience. We also resonated well with consumers in the European emerging markets in 2012. Sales grew 15%, driven by our performance in Russia, where we recorded an increase of 17%. In Russia, we now have a network of over 800 adidas and Reebok-owned stores, which clearly lead the way in the Russian market as the number 1 and 2. In North America, sales grew 2%. While adidas and TaylorMade-adidas Golf continued to perform extremely well and gained further market share in the world's largest sporting goods market, sales at Reebok were down. As you all know, the European debt crisis is unfortunately far from over.
Unemployment continues to run at high levels or is even rising in many EU countries, particularly in the Mediterranean region. In this environment, I definitely consider it a success that we also grew in our established markets in Western Europe, where sales were up by 3%. In Latin America, sales grew 8%. In the other Asian markets, sales increased by 7%. When developing our long-term strategic business plan, Route 2015, we had a clear starting point: our brands. The adidas Group is a multi-brand group. Our goal is to build brands that enthrall consumers, because only if we keep sparkling consumer excitement for our brands every day will consumers be interested in our products in the stores and ultimately buy them. For us, strong brands are therefore the key to everything.
It is only with strong brands that we can generate high-quality growth and, in turn, ensure the long-term sustainable success of your group. The adidas brand doubtless delivered on that target in 2012, attracting more consumers worldwide than ever before. This led to record sales of over EUR 11.3 billion, an increase of EUR 1.5 billion on a year earlier. A contributing factor in that regard was, of course, the magnificent presence of adidas at last year's two major sporting events. Our presence at the Olympic Games in London, as mentioned before, was fantastic, and the following video just shows you just how successful adidas was at these games. Market research confirms that adidas was deemed to be the most inspiring and most committed brand among all the Olympic sponsors. Moreover, we generated higher merchandising sales with Olympic products than ever before.
Prior to that, at the UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, we have defended our position as the most successful football brand in Europe and the world. Our long-term partner, Spain, took the title, and we achieved record sales in football of well over EUR 1.7 billion. This meant that of all sporting goods brands, adidas was clearly the winner in the 2012 summer of sports. The adidas brand is much more than Olympics and football. With running and basketball, we have defined two focus categories as part of Route 2015. Running is so important because it's the largest of all sports footwear categories. The significance of basketball results from the key role it plays in the North American sporting goods market. What these categories have in common is the tremendous growth potential in North America. In 2012, we were able to further tap this potential in both categories.
In running, sales increased by 13%, in basketball by as much as 22%. The adidas brand has also become a key player in the streetwear and fashion market. adidas Originals is one of the world's most popular streetwear labels, and with the Y-3 collection, our cooperation with Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, adidas is a highlight of every fashion week. Our youngest label, adidas NEO, has also made its mark in a very short space of time with young and trendy fashion for teenagers. adidas NEO is available in more than 1,000 stores in Greater China alone. In Germany, we currently have 10 pilot stores, one of them not far from here in the Breite Gasse in Nuremberg. Altogether, sales of adidas Originals and our Sport Style labels increased by 16%. In euro terms, we achieved a new record level of EUR 3.2 billion.
If we were to operate our lifestyle business as a separate organization, adidas Sport Style would meanwhile be the third-largest sporting goods company in the world. This, again, ladies and gentlemen, underlines the desirability of the adidas brand among consumers today. Let's now turn to Reebok. Regrettably, after two strong years in 2010 and 2011, Reebok's performance in 2012 was not convincing, with sales decreasing by 18% to EUR 1.7 billion. Having said that, please bear in mind that approximately half of this decline is due to three special items. Firstly, we decided not to renew our agreement with the NFL, North America's professional league for American football, beyond the 2011-2012 season. This was a strategic decision, as we're clearly positioning Reebok in the fitness segment and therefore no longer see the brand in the professional sports sector.
This entails the loss of NFL license revenues of around EUR 200 million per season. Secondly, Reebok's ice hockey sales are no longer reported in the Reebok, but in the Reebok-CCM Hockey segment. This is merely a shift within the adidas Group. Thirdly, as a result of the issues in India, which I explained in detail at the beginning of my speech, Reebok lost the majority of its sales in this market. Excluding all these effects, Reebok sales would have declined by around 8% in 2012. That's better than an 18% decline, but of course, still a long way from being a satisfying result for us in the management team and you, our shareholders. Let me state two things quite clearly here and now. Yes, Reebok's results for 2012 are disappointing, but also, yes, Reebok is and will remain an important part of the adidas Group.
We, the management team, are convinced of Reebok's potential as a fitness and training brand, and I too am personally convinced of Reebok's potential in this segment. In the long term, the Reebok brand will make the adidas Group even stronger. Why is this so? I'd like to give you four reasons for this. First, people are living longer and want to stay fit longer. We go to the gym and burn calories with activities such as aerobics, Pilates, and Zumba. We go jogging, we walk, or we relax with yoga. Statistically speaking, a child born in Germany today has a life expectancy of an incredible 100 years. Even if the statutory retirement age continues to be raised, that still leaves around three decades for leading an active post-career life.
Second, at the same time, sadly, obesity is becoming ever more of a problem, not only in the industrialized countries, but increasingly also in emerging nations. In my opinion, in the medium and long term, healthcare policymakers will increasingly strive to promote living a healthy lifestyle. There can be no doubt that sport and fitness are part and parcel of a healthy lifestyle. Thirdly, so far, no other global sporting goods brand has focused exclusively on the fitness market. Here, Reebok has a broad and ever-expanding sphere of activity ahead. Number 4, adidas Group management has shown that it can build successful sought-after brands. Just look at adidas. Over the past 10 years, we have succeeded in making adidas one of the world's most desirable brands. Take the golf market. When TaylorMade-adidas Golf sales were less than EUR 300 million when we acquired the company in 1998.
Today, TaylorMade-adidas Golf is by far the largest, most successful, and most profitable golf company in the world. Therefore, I'm asking you, ladies and gentlemen, why shouldn't this management team that has made adidas and TaylorMade-adidas Golf big, not succeeding Reebok to sustainable success? I'm convinced that our new strategy of focusing Reebok 100% on fitness is exactly the right way forward. With Reebok, we can speak to new consumer groups that we have not been able to reach in this way so far with the adidas Group's brand portfolio. Reebok is the fitness brand. See for yourselves. I just mentioned the phenomenal success of TaylorMade-adidas Golf. In 2011, TaylorMade-adidas Golf advanced to become the number one in the global golf market, surpassing the EUR 1 billion mark in sales for the first time. In 2012, TaylorMade-adidas Golf continued its success story nonstop.
We grew sales in our golf segment by another 20% to over EUR 1.3 billion. TaylorMade is the clear market leader in metal woods and irons. Moreover, TaylorMade, adidas Golf, Ashworth, and our most recent acquisition, Adams Golf, continued to gain market share in most other golf categories. Golfers, be they beginners or pros, love our high-quality, innovative products. Looking back on all the achievements of our brands, ladies and gentlemen, you will see that 2012 was also an extremely successful year for the adidas Group from an operational point of view. Obviously, we want to continue on this successful path in 2013. Before giving you our outlook for 2013, however, I'd like to provide you with some brief additional information on agenda items five to eight for today's Annual General Meeting.
On agenda item five, we're asking for your approval to amend two corporate agreements entered into with two wholly owned adidas AG subsidiaries in 1991 and 2007 respectively. The proposed amendments do not involve any substantial material matters. They're merely necessary as a result of new statutory provisions pertaining to tax law. The amendments are a prerequisite for the continuing recognition of the financial affiliation between adidas and the two subsidiaries for tax purposes. On agenda items six, seven, and eight, we ask for your approval to the cancellation of three hitherto unused authorizations concerning the issuance of authorized capital, which are due to expire in the near future. The new authorized capitals put forward for resolution today correspond to the currently existing authorizations. As with the authorizations to be canceled, the new authorizations provide the executive board with the possibility to disapply shareholders' preemptive rights under certain conditions.
In order to protect the company's interests and also to take utmost account of your interests, our shareholders' interests with respect to undiluted shareholdings, should the authorizations actually be used, the executive board has voluntarily committed to ensuring that the overall volume of shares issued on a non-preemptive basis does not exceed 12% of the nominal capital. Please allow me to state quite clearly, these are purely global authorizations. Just to be on the safe side, there are currently no concrete plans to issue new authorized capital. No plans. With that, let me return to the current financial year, 2013. In the first quarter of 2013, the results of which we announced last week, we laid the foundation for a successful 2013. Group sales remained stable on a currency neutral basis.
This is a solid performance given the high prior year comparisons due to the sell-in of event-related products for the Olympic Games and the European Football Championship, as you are all aware, the continuation of macroeconomic challenges in Europe out of this year. We delivered strong margin progress, which is our top priority for this year. Our focus on quality sales growth is reflected in our highest ever quarterly gross margin, which, at 50.1%, is above 50% for only the second time in the group's history. This is an impressive 2.4 percentage points above the prior year period. The group's operating margin improved by 1.1 percentage points to 11.8%, and net income attributable to shareholders rose by 6% to EUR 308 million or EUR 1.47 per share.
Based on our solid start in 2013 and the information we have on our business for the remainder of the year, I have good news for you, even more good news, in fact. 2013 will be yet another record year for the adidas Group. I know, this is a self-confident prediction, given that we ended 2012, a major sports year, with record results, and also in view of the continuing high degree of uncertainty regarding the global economic outlook and consumer spending. Just like a healthy measure of self-confidence stands a top athlete in good stead, this is also what distinguishes a top company. On what do we base our self-confident forecast for 2013? The adidas Group enjoys a strong presence in the fast-growing emerging markets, particularly in Greater China, Russia, and Latin America, and also the other Eastern European and Asian markets.
We're continuing to expand our own retail activities and control space initiatives, through which we can reach consumers directly. We can reach out to them directly, and we're building on these activities. In addition, we will launch a stream of innovative products throughout the year, which will more than offset the non-recurrence of sales related to the 2012 European Football Championship and the Olympic Games. For instance, in February, we introduced a brand new sports footwear technology, Boost. In just a few days' time, our new football boot, Nitrocharge, will make its global debut. In terms of phasing, sales growth is expected to be weighted towards the second half of the year. When we will also be introducing the first products for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, including, of course, the World Cup match ball and the jerseys for the national teams we equip.
All in all, as things stand today, we expect adidas Group sales to increase at a mid-single-digit rate on a currency-neutral basis in 2013. The group's gross margin is projected to improve to a level between 48%-48.5% compared to the prior year. The higher gross margin, coupled with a decrease in other operating expenses, will enable us to improve our operating margin to a level approaching 9%. Net income attributable to shareholders will increase by between 12%-16% to between EUR 890 million and EUR 920 million. We also expect to generate a positive operating cash flow in 2013. As you can see, the adidas Group continues to be in top shape in 2013 and will again outperform global economic growth. Ladies and gentlemen, as you've also seen, we're consistently pursuing our long-term strategic business plan, Route 2015, and more importantly, are thereby achieving outstanding results.
The adidas Group has developed extremely well since the introduction of Route 2015 at the end of 2010. We have grown sales by an impressive EUR 2.9 billion, achieving above-average growth, in particular in the markets and categories we had defined as the growth areas in North America, Greater China, and Russia, and also in running, basketball, adidas Originals, and adidas NEO. We have significantly expanded our controlled space initiatives, where we are now already generating 45% of our sales. As forecast, we have grown our net income faster than our sales by an average 18% each year. The cash flow we have generated from our operating activities since the end of 2010 amounts to more than EUR 1.7 billion. These, shareholders, are strong financial metrics. They show the excellent value we are creating for the adidas Group by implementing our Route 2015 strategy in a disciplined manner.
Ladies and gentlemen, with these financial figures and an equity ratio of just under 50%, the adidas Group has never been as strong and financially sound as today. I can confirm once more that we are going to achieve our ambitious targets by 2015 and achieve EUR 17 billion in revenue. Another goal is to increase the number of women in management position to at least 32%. As you can see on the chart behind me, we are now currently at 26% in Germany and as much as 28% worldwide, which makes us already one of the leaders compared to all the other DAX 30 companies. We have a clear plan as to how we intend to further increase the proportion of women in management positions in the coming years.
This involves, for example, specifically including women in our talent development programs, and we're also striving to make it easier to balance work and family life. For example, at our company headquarters in Herzogenaurach, we are currently building our own daycare facility with a capacity for 110 children. In addition, we want to increase the degree of female representation on the supervisory board as of the next election in 2014 from currently two to three female members, with at least one to be appointed on the shareholder side. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that with this report, I've been able to give you a good feel for how fit, healthy, and successful the adidas Group is, your group. We ended 2012, a scintillating sports year, with new records. We've got off to a solid start in 2013 and anticipate a noticeable acceleration in the second half of the year.
All in all, we continue to grow in 2013 and come significantly closer to reaching our 2015 goals. The motto for our 2012 annual report is "Pushing Boundaries." The athletes who wear our products want to run faster, jump higher, become fitter, and tap their own performance potential to the greatest extent possible. This is also exactly what we want to do in our business and within our company. Every day, we motivate and challenge each other to get better. The founder of adidas, Adi Dassler, once said, "Strive for perfection. There's always something you can improve." Constantly striving to improve. This is the spirit that distinguishes the adidas Group and each of our 47,000 employees. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all our employees for their passion and dedication, which has made our business success possible in the first place.
Pushing boundaries and striving to do things better, that's exactly the right spirit with which we intend to take further steps towards our Route 2015 goals together with you, our shareholders. Therefore, I hope that you will continue to place your trust in us in the years ahead. Thank you for your attention.