Zara owner Inditex full-year profit up 7 pct

LA CORUNA, Spain, March 14 (Reuters) - Inditex,owner of fashion chain Zara, reported a seven percent jump inannual net profit on Wednesday despite negative headwinds from astrong euro and helped by double-digit growth in online sales.

Inditex reported net profit of 3.37 billion euros ($4.2billion), in line with analyst expectations, on revenue of 25.34billion euros, also in line with analyst expectations for thefinancial year which runs from February to January.

The retailer, which owns a stable of brands from upmarketlabel Massimo Dutti to home wares chain Zara Home, said onlinesales grew 41 percent over the year to reach 10 percent of netsales across the group in 2017.

It is the first time Inditex has broken out online sales.Unlike many fashion retailers struggling with competition fromonline vendors like Amazon, Inditex is holding up wellas brands like Zara merge their high street presence with aslick online offering.

Large stores in prime shopping areas act as a showcase forclothing which can be bought there and then or ordered lateronline via the app or website. Online purchases can be picked upor returned in store.

The company said sales at constant exchange rates grew 9percent in the first five weeks of the new financial year asshoppers snapped up items from the spring/summer collectionslike printed maxi dresses, linen separates and pastel blazersfrom Zara.

Inditex is vulnerable to foreign exchange rates as itreports in euros yet makes around half its sales in othercurrencies.

Shares in the company fell to a three-year low last monthafter analysts cut their price targets on the stock due to theeffects of a strong euro, which has strengthened against mostglobal currencies since the beginning of the year.

Inditex trades at around 22 times estimated 2018 earningscompared to around 15 times earnings for Swedish rival H&Mand around 20 times earnings for Associated BritishFoods, owner of budget fashion brand Primark.

It proposed a dividend of 0.75 euros per share, onWednesday, an increase of 10.3 percent on the year ago period.($1 = 0.8066 euros)(Reporting By Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Paul Day)