Profits up 24 percent at Poland's biggest clothes retailer

WARSAW, Poland - LPP, Poland's biggest clothing retailer, reported a 24 percent rise in its fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, in line with market expectations due to a sharp rise in sales.

The home-grown rival to H&M and Inditex that is just about to join the Warsaw stock market's blue chip WIG20 index, said its net profit rose to 181 million zlotys ($59 million) in the quarter.

LPP, which operates under the Reserved, House, and Cropp brands, doubled its market capitalisation last year to over $5 billion. Its policy of promoting affordable clothing using famous models helped bring a 28 percent rise in revenue for the full year, to over 4.1 billion zlotys.

Economic growth in Poland, the sixth largest European Union country with 38 million people, has outperformed that of the euro zone since 2008 and is seen reaching 3 percent in 2014.

$1=3.0601 Polish zlotys