HONG KONG ? Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd., which operates supermarkets, drugstores and convenience shops across Asia, said first-half profit gained 13 percent on higher Hong Kong retail sales and expansion in Southeast Asia.

Net income at the Hong Kong-based, Singapore-listed company was $86 million, or 6.4 cents a share, compared with $76.5 million, or 5.7 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales rose to $2.5 billion from $2.28 billion.

Dairy Farm, which is registered in Bermuda, is benefiting from rising wages and consumer spending in Asia. In Hong Kong, where it runs Wellcome supermarkets, Mannings drugstores and 7-Eleven convenience stores, retail sales have gained almost every month since July, 2003, rising 5.3 percent in May from a year earlier.

?All of Dairy Farm?s businesses are trading well and the prospects are positive for the remainder of the year,? chairman Simon Keswick said in the statement.

?The group will build scale in its newer operations while remaining open to further geographic expansion.?

The retailer has expanded through acquisitions and adding outlets in Southeast Asia, where sales rose 16 percent and profit gained 12 percent, the statement said. In North Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, profit increased five percent.

The company is expanding into mainland China and Macau with its 7-Eleven convenience stores and Mannings drugstore chain.

Dairy Farm will pay an interim dividend of 2.6 cents, compared with 2.3 cents for the same period last year.