* Q3 underlying sales fall 3.6 pct in France
* UK & Ireland underlying sales up 5.8 pct
* Shares fall up to 3 pct (Adds CEO quote, analyst comment, shares)
By James Davey
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Kingfisher, Europe'slargest home improvement retailer, said sales growth slowed inits third quarter, with a soft French market offsetting a robustperformance in Britain and Poland where trading conditions aremore favourable.
Shares in the firm, which trades as Castorama and BricoDepot in markets including France and B&Q and Screwfix inBritain, fell up to 3 percent on Tuesday after it reportedunderlying sales in France fell 3.6 percent in the three monthsto Oct. 31, its fiscal third quarter.
Kingfisher blamed France's weak economy and a reduction inpromotional activity at Castorama for the outcome.
"France will now have now seen like-for-like sales declinefor five years by the end of the current year, even without theincursion of large scale online (competitors) in the DIYmarket," said Tony Shiret, analyst at Haitong Research, who hasa "sell" rating on Kingfisher.
The group's performance in France contrasted with theoutcome in Britain and Ireland, where like-for-like salesincreased 5.8 percent, driven by a 12.7 percent rise at Screwfixthat reflected well received new and extended ranges.
B&Q's like-for-like sales were up 3.5 percent - a sixthstraight quarter of growth.
Sales in Poland rose 6.7 percent, benefiting from supportivemarket conditions, including a rise in state benefits.
Kingfisher has not seen any clear impact on UK demand sinceBritain voted to leave the European Union in June.
NEW STRATEGY
In January Chief Executive Véronique Laury detailed astrategy to boost Kingfisher's annual profit by 500 millionpounds from 2021 that will cost 800 million pounds over fiveyears to deliver.
The plan involves unifying the product ranges offer acrossthe business, improving e-commerce capabilities and drivingefficiencies. The company is the world's third largest homeimprovement company behind U.S. firms Lowe's and HomeDepot.
"We continue to make good progress...and remain on track,"said Laury.
Total group sales rose 11.5 percent to 3.0 billion pounds($3.7 billion), with like-for-like sales up 1.8 percent, slowingfrom growth of 3.0 percent in the previous quarter.
The firm also plans to return 600 million pounds toshareholders over the next three years through share buybacks.It has so far returned 182 million pounds.
For Kingfisher's 2016-17 year analysts are on averageforecasting an underlying pretax profit of 773 million poundsversus 686 million pounds in 2015-16.
Shares in Kingfisher, up 12 percent so far this year, weredown 8.6 pence at 361 pence at 0946 GMT, valuing the business at8 billion pounds. ($1 = 0.8011 pounds) (Editing by Kate Holton/Keith Weir)
Kingfisher (KGF)
