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July 1 (Reuters) - British pubs operator Greene King Plc reported a better-than-expected full-year profit andsaid revenue from its retail business crossed 1 billion poundsfor the first time.
Greene King, which operates 1909 pubs including HungryHorse, as well as breweries, reported a pretax profit of 168.5million pounds ($264.51 million) for the 52 weeks ended May 3.
That compares with analysts' average estimate of 166.76million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue at Greene King's retail business, which accounts fornearly three-quarters of the total, rose 5.9 percent withaverage revenue per site up 2.4 percent. Group revenue rose 3percent to 1.31 billion pounds.
Suffolk-based Greene King is focusing on its retail businessas it competes for a bigger slice of the burgeoning diningmarket. It operates 1,000 managed pubs, restaurants and hotelsacross the UK.
The group completed a 774-million-pound takeover of smallerrival Spirit Pub last month to create one of the biggest pubgroups in Britain, overtaking All Bar One owner Mitchells &Butlers.
The company declared a final dividend of 21.8 pence pershare from 20.8 pence last year.
Shares in Greene King were up 0.8 percent at 851 pence inearly trading on the London Stock Exchange.
($1 = 0.6370 pounds) (Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by AnupamaDwivedi)
