(Adds chairman remarks, earnings context)
SYDNEY, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Australian retail giant Myer Holdings Ltd MYR.AX on Friday said it expects a return to net profit growth in 2017, as it revamps its strategy in the face of fierce competition from e-commerce stores and global "fast fashion" chains.
The outlook propelled shares in Australia's biggest up-market department store operator by sales as much as 10 percent higher in morning trade as investors bet on a stronger-than-expected turnaround after years of declining earnings.
In prepared notes for the company's annual general meeting, Chairman Paul McClintock told shareholders that the 2017 financial year would see earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation "ahead of sales growth".
The company was on track to return to growth in net profit after tax "both before and after implementation costs", he added.
Myer shares rose as much as 10 percent in early trading, their biggest jump since March, before easing to be up 6 percent, while the broader sharemarket was up 0.3 percent.
Myer is spending A$600 million ($445 million) over five years to shut underperforming stores, revamp others and improve online offerings to survive what has become a perfect storm for its 116-year-old business model.
Its net income fell for each of the past six financial years, according to Thomson Reuters data, as it struggled to counter new online rivals and foreign "fast fashion" chains like H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB HMb.ST .
Analysts had already forecast that the company's strategy overhaul would help it grow net profit by 2 percent, on average, in 2017.
"Australia continues to see rapid changes in the retail environment, with the arrival of international entrants and the evolution in consumer behaviour and technology for purchases," McClintock said.
The company's stores were being "designed to make us more resilient to these external forces", he added.
At its fiscal 2016 earnings announcement in September, the company said it anticipated a return to net profit growth in the current financial year.
($1 = 1.3492 Australian dollars)