China's leading electronics retailer Suning Appliance Co reported a 67 percent growth in profit for the first quarter this year on its expanded network and reduced tax.

Its net income reached 430 million yuan, or 0.30 yuan per share, in the quarter from a year earlier and its sales rose 41.95 percent to 12.64 billion yuan, the company said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange today.

The retailer attributed the growth to booming sales, more stores and tax rate adjustments, according to the statement.

It estimated that the profit increase in the first half of this year would reach 70 percent to 100 percent with the pace of new chain store openings in the period likely to exceed openings a year-earlier.

As the country's second-largest electronics retailer, Suning had 662 stores across the country by the first quarter after adding 32 new stores in the period. Its same-store sales rose two percent on a yearly basis in the quarter.

"The company is confident of opening more than 200 stores this year," it said.

Suning aims to overtake its larger rival Gome Electrical Appliance Holdings Ltd to become the largest home appliance chain on the mainland in three years and to enter the overseas market in 2010, its chairman Zhang Jindong said in an earlier report.

"Hong Kong will be the first stop in our overseas expansion plan," Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2008)