UPDATE 2-J.Martins H1 net profit soars 56 pct, beats f'cast

(Adds growth drivers, new stores)

LISBON, July 30 (Reuters) - Portugal's second-largest retailer, Jeronimo Martins, on Wednesday posted a 56 percent rise in first-half net profit, which was boosted by booming sales at its Biedronka chain in Poland and Pingo Doce at home.

Martins' (JMT.LS: Quote, Profile, Research) net profit was 65 million euros ($101.3 million). Analysts in a Reuters survey had expected the retailer to net 52 million euros. Revenues rose 31 percent to 3.17 billion euros, compared with 3.13 billion in the survey.

Earnings before interest, taxes, deprecaition and amortisation (EBITDA) rose over 40 percent to 199.4 million euros, also above market expectations of around 187 million euros.

Sales at Pingo Doce, Portugal's leading supermarket chain, rose 30 percent to 675.6 million euros. Same store sales rose nearly 14 percent, Martins said in a statement, adding that its performance was better than the sector's average.

In Poland, the country's main food retail chain, Biedronka, saw its total sales jump 52 percent to 1.62 billion euros, while its EBITDA soared 90 percent. Same-store sales at the discount chain rose over 24 percent.

The appreciation of Poland's zloty currency also boosted Martins' bottom line in euros.

Martins had 82 more Pingo Doce stores in the second quarter of this year than a year earlier and 53 more Biedronka stores following the acquisition of Plus outlets in Portugal and Poland in late 2007 from Germany's Tengelmann for 320 million euros.

The company said that the main driver for the like-for-like growth at Biedronka was the so-called average ticket -- the average sum per customer's visit spent on a basket of goods. At Pingo Doce the drivers were the average ticket and the number of customers, it said.