A MODEL wears a black- and-white coat over a cream-and-black bikini, carrying a lime green carry-all, at a 2004 Burberry show in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Burberry Group Plc., a UK luxury-goods maker whose founder created gabardine fabric, may say Tuesday first-half sales advanced after the company opened stores to stoke purchases of higher-priced products. Revenue rose 14 percent to £449 million ($913 million) in the six months through September from £392.5 million a year earlier, according to the average of five analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. --BLOOMBERG

MILAN—Burberry Group Plc., the luxury-goods maker whose founder created gabardine fabric, may say Tuesday first-half sales advanced after the company opened stores to stoke purchases of higher-priced products.

Revenue rose 14 percent to £449 million ($913 million) in the six months through September from £392.5 million a year earlier, according to the average of five analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Burberry plans to expand its selling space by 14 percent in the current fiscal year to catch up with LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and PPR SA’s Gucci. London-based Burberry gets more profit from selling goods such as $1,500 Manor handbags in its own shops, rather than through wholesale customers such as department stores.

“First-half revenue growth should remain quite strong,” Erwan Rambourg, an analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc. in Paris with a “neutral” rating on the stock, said in an October 11 research note.

The company has opened stores in the current year in the cities of Antwerp in Belgium and Bologna in Italy and on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Bain & Co. has identified 50 European locations where Burberry rivals have stores and the UK company doesn’t, MorganStanley analyst Claire Kent, who has an “overweight” rating on the stock, said last month in a report. Burberry has 260 shops and department-store concessions, compared with Louis Vuitton’s 382, all of which are directly owned.

Burberry, which outfitted Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole in 1911, has said it aims to focus on adding US and European retail space. The company also has fueled profit by focusing on higher-priced items such as the Manor range of bags, which are more profitable than apparel. ---Bloomberg

PHILIPPINE stocks rose close to a record with metal producers led by Philex Mining Corp. climbing after gold and copper prices increased.

Developer issues additional shares

SHAREHOLDERS of property developer Empire East Land Holdings Inc. approved a plan Friday to issue more shares, owing to expectations of further growth in the Philippines’ real-estate sector.

SOUTHEAST Asian Airlines (Seair) may fly to Bangkok, Incheon and Taipei as soon as plans to mount flights to Singapore and Macau push through, possibly early next year.

BAYAN Telecommunications Inc. (Bayan) will likely secure this year the consent of the remaining creditors of its subsidiary Radio Communications Philippines Inc. (RCPI) for an out-of-court debt settlement.

MILAN—Burberry Group Plc., the luxury-goods maker whose founder created gabardine fabric, may say Tuesday first-half sales advanced after the company opened stores to stoke purchases of higher-priced products.

ABOUT two years ago, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, now chairman of Ayala Corp., Bank of the Philippine Islands and Globe Telecom, told BusinessMirror that more than a thousand hectares near Laguna Technopark located at Sta. Rosa City were available for development.