UPDATE 1-Compass posts first-half revenue growth of 5.7 percent

By Li-mei Hoang

LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Britain's Compass Group, the world's biggest catering firm, reaffirmed its full-year expectations after posting a 5.7 percent rise in half-year revenue due to strong demand in North America and a return to growth in Europe and Japan.

The company said on Wednesday organic revenue growth -- which excludes acquisitions -- in North America grew by 8.2 percent, though it expected growth to slow to 6 percent in the second half of the year.

"North America, which is obviously our flagship business, is doing particularly well growing by 8 percent -- that's probably not quite sustainable but we think 6 percent probably is," said CEO Richard Cousins.

The company also reported Europe & Japan, which accounts for 31 percent of group revenue, returned to growth for the first time since 2008.

"Europe has become the story for us, but we did have a tough few years and now we are accelerating. In the first half, we have grown by just under 1 percent, in the second half, we will do better than that and in 2016 we think we will do better again," said Cousins.

Compass said underlying group revenue rose to 9.1 billion pounds ($14.3 billion) for the period ended March 31. It raised its interim dividend by 11.4 percent to 9.8 pence.

Underlying pretax profit climbed 4.9 percent to 637 million pounds, in line with analyst expectations. The company is expected to report full-year pretax profit of around 1.2 billion pounds, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of 20 analysts.

However, Compass said it remained cautious about the economic environment in some emerging markets and lower commodity prices impacting its Offshore & Remote business.

"The biggest ones would be Brazil and Turkey, both of which are suffering from a economic slowdown but an acceleration in inflation. So that's a difficult environment," Cousins said.

Shares in the company fell by 2.3 percent to 1,136 pence in early trade, among the biggest falls on the FTSE index.

"The company indicates that there was a slowing in the Defence, Offshore and Remote business and that in emerging markets there is pressure caused by weak commodity prices that is challenging," said Stephen Rawlinson at brokerage Whitman Howard.

Cousins said the strength of sterling against currencies such as the euro and U.S. dollar was now expected to have a small negative impact on revenue.

The firm had said in March the currency impact on revenue would be a positive effect of 35 million pounds.

($1 = 0.6380 pounds) (Editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter)