July 12 - Levi Strauss & Co reported a second-quarter profit, helped by higher sales to store chains and in Asia and Europe, allowing it to mitigate the damage to margins from higher cotton costs and discounting.

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The private company said second-quarter net income was $21 million, compared with a loss of $14.4 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue, which includes sales and licensing revenue, rose 11.9 percent to $1.09 billion.

Sales grew 19 percent in Asia and 17 percent in Europe; in constant-currency terms, the increases were 12 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

In the Americas, sales were led by the company's namesake jeans, offsetting a drop in sales of Dockers. Revenue in the Americas was up 7 percent.

Gross margin was down 2 percentage points to 49 percent of revenue because of higher cotton costs and an increase in discounting.

Net debt stayed constant at $1.6 billion.

Levi's clients include department store chains such as Macy's Inc, J.C. Penney Co Inc and Kohl's Corp.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; editing by John Wallace)