LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Kingfisher, Europe'slargest home improvement retailer, beat forecasts with a 13.5percent rise in first-half profit, driven by a strongperformance in Britain and Poland.
The firm, which runs the B&Q and Screwfix chains in Britainand Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other countries,said it made underlying pretax profit of 436 million pounds ($568 million) in the six months to July 31.
That compared to analysts' average forecast of 430 millionpounds and 384 million pounds in the previous year.
Total sales rose 2.7 percent to 5.75 billion pounds on aconstant currency basis.
Kingfisher reiterated that in the UK, the EU referendumresult had created uncertainty for the economic outlook, eventhough there has been no clear evidence of an impact on demandso far on its businesses.
In France the firm remains cautious on the short termoutlook.($1 = 0.7675 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
Kingfisher (KGF)