Quiksilver plunge to hurt Billabong Despite surfwear group Quiksilver trumpeting plans to swing from four years of successive losses to earnings growth, the US-based group has shocked analysts by missing second-quarter revenue and earnings estimates, highlighting the massive challenge facing struggling rival Billabong. Quiksilver, founded in Torquay, Victoria, in 1969 and now listed on the New York Stock Exchange, blamed its earnings retreat on collapsing European sales, asset impairments and a poor performance by its Australian-dominated Asia-Pacific business. Shares in the California-based retailer slipped 10 per cent last week on the poor results. The company also announced it would continue to liquidate excess inventory, dump non-core brands and reduce its product offering by as much as a third as it battles to turn its business around. Quiksilver's aggressive divestment plan and extended stock clearance comes at a bad time for the Australian-based Billabong, a key competitor that is also mulling asset sales as it buckles under the weight of $300 million in debt, flagging sales and management turmoil in the wake of protracted takeover speculation. Billabong's financial position became more perilous last week after two private equity firms walked away from their takeover proposals, leaving chief executive Launa Inman to press ahead with her radical plans to carve off chunks of the business and hack away at costs and underperforming brands. But it looks like she will face strong headwinds as Quiksilver also floods the market with unwanted stock and attempts to sell non-core brands. Quiksilver reported that for the quarter ending April 30, its losses had blown out to $US32.4 million compared with a year-earlier loss of $US5.1 million for the quarter. Revenue declined 6.8 per cent to $US458.7 million. Asia-Pacific revenues fell 9 per cent, with the shortfall driven by headwinds in the Australia wholesale market. But we were pleased to see solid positive comp store sales growth in our full-price retail stores in that market," said Quiksilver CFO Richard Shields. Previously Quiksilver had promised investors it would repair the global business and had targeted to improve EBITDA by approximately $US150 million by 2016 compared with fiscal 2012 results.