Retail chain to open more stores

Hong Kong - Parkson Retail Group Ltd., the Beijing-based department-store chain controlled by Malaysia's Lion Group, will accelerate its expansion in China in the next three years.

The company will open 8 to 9 stores a year through 2013, after opening 5 last year, Managing Director Alfred Cheng told reporters in Hong Kong on Monday. The retailer said 2010 net income jumped 9 percent to 992 million yuan ($151 million), compared with the 1.07 billion yuan average of 13 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Parkson is opening more stores in China as spending on clothes, cosmetics and home appliances surges. The number of middle-income and affluent consumers in the nation, which overtook Japan as the second-biggest economy in 2010, could almost triple over the next 10 years, according to Boston Consulting Group Inc.