Spain's Inditex profits rise by 20 pct in Feb.-Oct. period

Textile group Inditex increased profits by 20 percent in the first nine months of its fiscal year, from Feb. 1 to Oct. 31, in comparison with the same period of a year earlier, the company reported on Thursday.

Inditex net profits reached 2.02 billion euros (2.21 billion U.S. dollars) from Feb. 1 to Oct. 31, with sales reaching 14.744 billion euros and meaning a 16-percent increase.

The company said 13,079 new jobs were created worldwide over the last 12 months, 3,291 of them in Spain, which leaves the total number of workers at 146,478 people.

Inditex operates eight brands including Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterque. Inditex has opened 230 new stores in 48 different markets also increasing its online presence.

Zara Home has opened online stores in Australia and Japan, while Uterque opened in Sweden and Denmark and Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and Oysho in China.

The company reported they opened 109 new stores in Europe, 47 in America and 74 in Asia, bringing the total number of stores 6,913 worldwide. Inditex has stores in 88 different markets and online stores in 28.

Inditex is the world's leading clothing retailer. His founder, Amacio Ortega, passed investor Warren Buffet to become the world's second-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index published at the beginning of June (1 euro=1.10 U.S. dollars) Endit