China's Belle International posts better than expected profit rise

HONG KONG, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Chinese footwear retailer Belle International Holdings posted a forecast-beating 3.9 percent rise in first-half net profit on Monday despite what it described as a tough retail climate and competition from e-commerce.

The company, which distributes footwear and sportswear brands including Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse, reported net profit of 2.16 billion yuan ($340.1 million) for the six months to Aug. 31, up from 2.08 billion yuan in the same period last year.

That compared with an average forecast of 1.99 billion yuan from three analysts polled by Reuters.

Revenue rose to 19.36 billion yuan from 18.56 billion yuan.

Belle had said in September that its footwear business declined 7.7 pct in its second quarter, while sportswear and apparel grew 6.5 percent.

Analysts said that Belle should benefit from efforts by Nike, the world largest sportswear manufacturer, to boost sales in the coming years.

Shares in Belle have fallen more than 16 percent this year, against a 1.6 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index . ($1 = 6.3517 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Donny Kwok and Meg Shen; Editing by David Goodman)