(Yicai Global) July 12 -- Japanese fast fashion brand Uniqlo's revenues rose 20 percent from a year earlier in China in its first three fiscal quarters ending May 31, per the financial report Uniqlo's parent Fast Retailing issued yesterday.

Yamaguchi prefecture-based Fast Retailing posted CNY115.7 billion (USD16.8 billion) in revenues in the period, up 7 percent from a year earlier, per the report, which added Uniqlo logged CNY96.6 billion in revenue.

China is Uniqlo's largest overseas market, contributing JPY402.6 billion (USD3.7 billion) -- 22 percent of its total revenue -- to the firm in the first three quarters. Uniqlo China has a very mature e-commerce business, and online sales in the country make up around 20 percent of its total. The company aims to lift this figure to over 30 percent in the fiscal year ending August 2021.

Uniqlo had 673 stores in China as of late February, 30 percent of them in first-tier cities, and is projected to have more than 1,000 outlets by 2021.

Warm winter weather in the first half brought a rising discount rate in Japan, so the firm's revenues dropped 0.5 percent from a year earlier to JPY701 billion in the first three quarters in its homeland, while net profit fell 19.5 percent to JPY96.7 billion.

Uniqlo has opened stores in Amsterdam, Manila and Copenhagen in recent years as part of its global expansion.

Editor: Ben Armour