China's Belle expects 'marginally higher' profit for 2012

HONG KONG Feb 21 (Reuters) - Belle International Holdings Ltd, China's top footwear retailer by market value, said it expects that its 2012 net profit was "marginally higher" than its net profit in 2011.

In a filing to the Hong Kong exchange late on Wednesday, Belle said it anticipates that its audited net profit for the financial year ended December 2012 would be at the lower end of a range of estimates contained in certain analysts' reports, ranging from 4.29 billion yuan to 4.85 billion yuan ($687.8 million to $777.5 million).

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Belle posted net profit of 4.25 billion yuan in 2011, up 24 percent from a year earlier.

Shares of Belle, which has market value of nearly $20 billion, ended up 2.1 percent on Wednesday at an all-time high of HK$18.36. ($1 = 6.2376 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Chris Gallagher)