Higher sales boosted the net profit of electronics and home furnishing retailer Courts Asia, which listed on the Singapore Exchange just last year.

Its first-quarter net profit rose 5.1 per cent to $7 million from the same period a year ago.

This was driven by higher sales, which inched up 1.6 per cent to $197.1 million in the first quarter ended June 30.

Executive director and chief executive officer Terry Donald O'Connor in a statement: "We are pleased to have attained an improvement in net profit despite a more challenging macro environment in Malaysia and higher interest expenses of $960,000 from our medium term note issue."