China's GOME Q2 nearly triples on sales, margins

HONG KONG, Aug 12 (Reuters) - GOME Electrical Appliances Holding (0493.HK), China's top electronics retailer, nearly tripled its quarterly profit on Tuesday thanks to better margins and sales as it gained ground in China's booming retail arena.

The Beijing-based firm competes with U.S. giants Wal-Mart (WMT.N) and Best Buy (BBY.N), as well as domestic rival Suning Appliance Co (002024.SZ) for a slice of China's $1.3 trillion retail market.

GOME said on Tuesday it earned 637 million yuan ($92.81 million) for the three months ended-June, versus 226.17 million yuan a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations of previously reported figures.

The strong performance was partly due to lower impairment losses arising from convertible bonds.

The retailer, which operates over 700 outlets across China, is expected to book roughly 2.3 billion yuan in 2008 profit, more than doubling the 1.13 billion yuan it booked in 2007.

Its margins are improving amid a wave of consolidation in the electronic retail segment, and as it sells new products such as cell phones.

Shares in GOME lost 17.2 percent in the April to June period, underperforming the Hang Seng Index's .HSI roughly 3.3 percent slide.

The stock trades at around 16.1 times forecast earnings. Rival Suning Appliance Co Ltd trades at a forward multiple of 23.4 times.

(Reporting by Joseph Chaney; editing by Dominic Whiting)