Yangtze Power Co, operator of the world's biggest hydropower project, said first-half profit jumped 72 percent after the company sold shares in a bank and as electricity output rose.

Net income surged to 2.25 billion yuan (US$298 million), or 0.268 yuan a share, from 1.31 billion yuan, or 0.1610 yuan, a year earlier, Yangtze Power said in a statement to Shanghai's stock exchange July 30. Sales rose 12 percent to 3.4 billion yuan.