Li & Fung Ltd's 2011 profit grew by 24 percent, beating analysts' estimates as the world's biggest supplier of clothes and toys benefited from acquisitions and improved sales at US retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Net income rose to $681 million from a restated $548 million a year earlier, the outsourcer said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday. That compares with the average $635 million estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Earnings per share climbed to 8.43 cents from 7.17 cents from a year earlier.

Chief Executive Officer Bruce Rockowitz said orders from retailers in the United States, where the Hong Kong-based company made 60 percent of its $20 billion revenue, are improving.

Li & Fung increased earnings by acquiring rivals and entering into supply agreements to sell American and European retailers clothes, toys and furniture that are mostly made in Asian countries, such as China, Malaysia and Thailand.

"Li & Fung's earnings per share growth is manufactured through acquisitions," said Gary Pinge, regional head of consumer and gaming at Macquarie, before the earnings announcement. "The key focus needs to be on the balance sheet and cash flows as well as what the organic growth is after stripping out all acquisitions."

Sales in Asia tripled to 12 percent, with China accounting for about half of the revenue in the region, Li & Fung said. The company, which traces its beginnings to 1906, when its parent Li & Fung Group was founded, may make 20 percent of its sales in Asia by the end of its three-year plan in 2013, Rockowitz said in August.

Li & Fung proposed to pay a final dividend of 34 Hong Kong cents, compared with 26 cents. It had cash and cash equivalents amounting to $426 million at the end of 2011.

Consumer sentiment has been fluctuating in the US, where Li & Fung supplies companies including Limited Brands Inc, Kohl's Corp and Target Corp.

US consumers poured into malls and took to the Web during Thanksgiving weekend, spending a record $52.4 billion, the National Retail Federation said.

Sales at US Wal-Mart stores open at least a year rose 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter ended Jan 31, the second gain in the past 10 quarters. The fourth quarter is an important selling period for US retailers because of the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays.

"You've seen incremental bullishness in the United States and orders are definitely better than last year from a growth point of view," Rockowitz said.