* Says expects full-year adj pretax profit to rise nearly 50pct
* Raises interim div to 19 pence/shr from 16
* Appoints Nick Schoenfeld as chief financial officer
* Shares rise as much as 9 pct (Adds bullets, analyst comment; updates share movement)
Oct 10 (Reuters) - Telecom Plus Plc - a Britishsupplier of gas, phone, internet and electricity servicesthrough its Utility Warehouse business - raised its interimdividend and forecast a nearly 50 percent jump in full-yearprofit, citing strong customer growth.
Shares of the company rose as much as 9 percent to 1,371pence on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.
Telecom Plus said it would raise its interim dividend to 19pence per share from 16, and forecast an adjusted pretax profitof 63 million pounds ($102 million) for the year ending March.
The profit forecast was in line with market expectations.
Telecom Plus's business allows households and businesses tosave money by buying all their utility services through a singleprovider.
The company said it had 565,372 customers at the end ofSeptember, a rise of 6.5 percent from the end of March, whileservice numbers rose about 6.8 percent to 2.03million.
"The strength in momentum in the first quarter updatecontinues," FinnCap analyst Andrew Darley said.
The rise in customer numbers and service numbers was all themore impressive given competition from smaller independentutility suppliers who benefit more from falling wholesaleprices, Darley added.
Telecom Plus said it appointed Nick Schoenfeld as chieffinancial officer, replacing Chris Houghton, who left earlierthis month.
Schoenfeld, who will join the board in the new year, waspreviously group finance director of privately held investmentgroup Hanover Acceptances.
Telecom Plus's shares were up 7.3 percent at 1,347.23 penceat 1125 GMT. Up to Thursday's close, the stock had fallen about29 percent since the start of the year.
The company will release its half-year results on Nov. 19. ($1 = 0.6205 British pound) (Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bangalore; Editing byGopakumar Warrier and Ted Kerr)