Brown Group Share News (BWNG)

* FY pretax profit down 13.4 pct to 86.2 mln stg

* Reiterates outlook for FY15/16

* Shares rise as much as 5 pct (Adds details, CEO comments, share price)

By Aastha Agnihotri

April 29 (Reuters) - Plus-size fashion retailer N BrownGroup Plc's full-year profit fell a little less thanexpected as weak sales in autumn was partially offset by higherdemand for its Jacamo and Simply Be brands.

Shares in N Brown, which had issued two profit warnings forthe year, rose as much as 5 percent on the London Stock Exchangeafter the news.

"The shares have underperformed the general retail sector by14.7 percent in the last three months due to the lowered profitexpectations...," analyst Mike Dennis of Cantor Fitzgerald wrotein a note.

British retailers faced a tough 2014 partly due to a mildautumn that hit sales of winter fashions. Muted wage growth inBritain also forced consumers to keep spending under control.

N Brown, which targets older and larger shoppers mainlythrough its online and catalogue stores, reported a 11 percentand 1.4 percent rise in Jacamo and Simply Be brand sales,respectively.

The company said on Wednesday it was confident of itsfull-year outlook, but did not provide any specific forecasts onits spring/summer collection.

"We are not giving an update on spring/summer but we arecertainly in line with our expectations as the warm weatherhelped," Chief Executive Angela Spindler told Reuters.

N Brown said adjusted pretax profit fell 13.4 percent to86.2 million pounds ($132.67 million) for the 52 weeks endedFeb. 28. Analysts, on average, were expecting profit of 85.4million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue was nearly flat at 818 million pounds.

The company, which targets older and larger shoppers mainlythrough its online and catalogue stores, also said it plans toincrease the number of stores in the UK to 25 from 15.

Online sales now represent 59 percent of N Brown's homeshopping sales compared with 58 percent last year.

Manchester, northern England-based company is being revampedby Spindler, who succeeded Alan White as CEO in 2013.

She has, so far, reduced N Brown's range of low-marginelectrical items, introduced a cash payment option forcustomers, and relaunched its biggest brand - JD Williams.

N Brown maintained its final dividend at 8.56 pence for theyear.

Shares in the company were up 4.2 percent at 335.4 pence at1030 GMT. The stock has lost 17 percent of their value since thebeginning of the year.

($1 = 0.6517 pounds) (Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by AnandBasu and Tresa Sherin Morera)