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* Q3 retail profit 225 mln pounds, down 11.8 pct
* Q3 total sales 2.82 bln pounds, down 3.6 pct
* Q3 UK/Ireland lfl sales up 2.6 pct, France down 4.0 pct
* Shares down 3.4 pct, down 20 pct so far this year (Adds detail, CEO, analyst comment, shares)
By James Davey
LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Kingfisher, Europe'sbiggest home improvement retailer, cautioned investors onTuesday against expecting a quick recovery in France, the marketthat contributes more than half its profits.
Kingfisher posted an 11.8 percent drop in third-quarterearnings, saying the weak French market, where the firm tradesas Castorama and Brico Depot, was more than offsetting astronger performance at its B&Q and Screwfix chains in Britain.
"In this quarter, you saw a degree of the reality of some ofthe tax increases for the French consumer," Chief Executive IanCheshire told Reuters.
"I'm not sure it's necessarily getting worse but we'reexpecting this sort of flat to negative picture to continue," hesaid, adding that Kingfisher would keep a tight control oncosts.
Shares in Kingfisher, the world's No. 3 DIY player behindU.S. groups Lowe's and Home Depot, fell 3.4percent, having already fallen 20 percent this year.
In its 2014 budget, the French government hit consumers withhigher income and sales taxes to try and bring down the deficit,which remains above the European Union cap of 3 percent.
Kingfisher made a retail profit of 225 million pounds ($353million) in the 13 weeks to Nov. 1, below an analysts' averageforecast of 227 million pounds and down from 271 million in thesame period last year.
The fall in profit was exacerbated by a stronger sterling,which contributed to an adverse foreign exchange hit of 13million pounds.
Total sales fell 3.6 percent to 2.82 billion pounds. Salesat UK and Ireland stores open more than a year rose 2.6 percenton a constant currency basis, but fell 4.0 percent in France.
Analysts at BESI Research said they expected profitforecasts for the 2014-15 year to fall by about 3 percent to670-680 million pounds.
The results are the last to be presented by Cheshire, who isbeing succeeded by Veronique Laury, the head of Kingfisher'sFrench arm, on Dec. 8.
"If you take the overall picture over the seven years I'mvery happy with what we and the team have achieved here," hesaid, noting a more than doubling in profits.
Cheshire, who has been linked with the chairman job attroubled British grocer Tesco, said he was keen foranother job after taking a break.
"You never say never," he said, though he added hispreference would be a full-time CEO position somewhere.(1 US dollar = 0.6376 British pound) (Editing by Kate Holton and David Clarke)
