(Adds background regarding income from flagship assets, context on retail competition)
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Australian shopping mall developer Westfield Corp WFD.AX said full-year underlying net profit rose 2.0 percent on a constant currency basis helped by a spike in income from its flagship assets despite fierce competition from online retail platforms such as Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O .
Underlying net profit was $706.8 million for the year to Dec. 31, better than analysts' average estimate of A$679.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Underlying profit excludes one-off items.
Full-year net property income from its main assets jumped to $615.4 million from $546.7 million a year ago.
The world's fourth-largest shopping mall developer has been overhauling its properties in the United States and Britain, adding non-traditional fixtures like cinemas and fine dining precincts to lure consumers as its core retail tenants weather increased competition from online platforms.
In December, the 58-year-old company's founder and chairman Frank Lowy agreed to a $25 billion buyout from Europe's top property group Unibail-Rodamco SE UNBP.AS , a move many analysts interpreted as an admission that brick-and-mortar retail had peaked. mall owner, which in 2014 spun off its Australian assets as Scentre Group SCG.AX to focus on its U.S. and European assets, said it would pay a final dividend of 25.5 cents per share, compared with 25.1 cents the previous year.