SHANDA Interactive Entertainment Ltd beat analysts' estimates when its sales and net income in the second quarter of this year soared.

The firm posted a profit of 279.8 million yuan (US$40.79 million), or 3.8 yuan per American depositary receipt, a drop of 33 percent from a year earlier when it made more than 400 million yuan which included a gain of 177.5 million yuan from the disposal of Sina shares, it said in a statement yesterday.

Revenue for the country's largest online games provider, based in Shanghai, jumped 48 percent to 837.6 million yuan, it said in the unaudited statement.

Analysts in a Bloomberg News survey had earlier estimated that sales would be 788 million yuan and profit would be 251 million yuan.

The firm sees third-quarter sales to rise 6 percent to 9 percent on a quarterly basis, Chief Financial Officer Grace Wu said.

Online game revenues, including multiplayer online role-playing games and casual games, were 802.6 million yuan in the second quarter, a jump of 47.7 percent from a year earlier. The rise was driven by expansion packs for existing game titles and the strong performance of newly-launched games.

A new corporate income tax law in January also helped, according to the firm.