Greek toy retailer Jumbo's year sales up 17.9 pct

ATHENS, July 4 (Reuters) - Greek toy retailer Jumbo's (BABr.AT) fiscal year sales rose 17.9 percent, thanks to an expanding store network, the company said in a bourse filing on Friday.

Sales for the country's largest toy company, which also sells stationery and home items, rose to 403.9 million euros for the year to June. In December, the firm launched two new stores in Athens and Bulgarian capital Sofia, bringing its total number of outlets to 41.

"The group managed to achieve this strong performance thanks to its stores in Greece and its department store in Bulgaria, as the ongoing dockworkers strike makes the achievement of a similar performance in Cyprus difficult," the company said.

The firm had guided for a 17.4 percent rise in sales and a 21.4 percent rise in net profit. It did not give a figure for net profit.

Jumbo has said it plans to open three more stores in Greece by December 2008 and 11 more in Bulgaria.

The stock trades about 13 times estimated 2008 earnings, compared with a P/E of 17 for the European leisure products sector, according to Reuters Estimates. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Quentin Bryar)