(Agencies/China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-25 10:05

China's Zhejiang Supor Cookware Co Ltd, controlled by French household appliance maker SEB, yesterday said it would spend one billion yuan to build its first overseas factory in Vietnam next year.

The planned facilities will help Supor to avoid export duties and boost sales in the 10 countries of the ASEAN, a market that equals half of China's population of 1.3 billion, investor relations official Liao Lihua said.

Board Secretary Ye Jide said yesterday that Supor's profit would jump 80 percent this year with sales rising 40 percent, in line with the company's forecast in its third-quarter report.

"Sales may grow faster in the future as SEB will move more production to China," Ye said.

SEB last week boosted its stake in Supor to 52.74 percent from 30 percent, after completing a partial tender offer for the company, which is based in eastern China.

SEB's investment in Supor, worth 327 million euros, will give it access to a sales network across China, the world's fastest growing consumer market.

In August 2006, SEB announced plans to take over Supor and this year won the government's approval to buy an initial 30 percent stake, although Chinese rivals had been urging the government to block the deal.