Electrocomponents warns on H1 operating profit, shares fall

* Sees 4 mln stg hit to H1 operating profit

* Sees 2 mln in reorganisation costs in H1

* H1 underlying sales rise

* H1 UK sales fall 2 pct (Adds details, analysts' comments, share movement)

Oct 2 (Reuters) - Electrocomponents Plc (LSE: ECM.L - news) , a British distributor of electronic products for engineers, said it expects to report a smaller first-half operating profit, hurt by fewer trading days and adverse currency movements.

Electrocomponents' shares fell as much as much as 5 percent to 208 pence on Thursday morning, taking the stock to its lowest in more than two years. It was the biggest percentage loser on the FTSE Midcap Index.

The company, which distributes 500,000 products sourced from over 2,500 suppliers, said its expects first-half operating profit to be hurt by about 4 million pounds (about $6 million).

The company's finance director, Simon Boddie, told Reuters in May that the strong pound would have a small impact on profit for the year ending March 2015.

Electrocomponents reported a first-half operating profit of 47.2 million pounds in 2013.

The company, which also makes the credit-card sized minicomputer Raspberry Pi, said the restructuring of its sales team in Asia-Pacific and the UK would chalk up reorganisation costs of about 2 million pounds in the first half.

Revenue from the company's UK business declined 2 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30.

"We remain cautious on prospects for Electrocomponents. The UK appears structurally difficult again with a weak PMI. Europe is also likely to continue to be difficult for the immediate period driven by economic woes," Shore Capital analyst Robin Speakman said in a note to clients.

The brokerage has a "sell" rating on the stock.

Electrocomponents said first-half underlying sales rose 3 percent, aided by strong demand for its products internationally.

International sales were up 5 percent, with revenue from North America increasing 10 percent and from continental Europe up 2 percent. Sales in Asia-Pacific grew 5 percent.

The international business - comprising continental Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific - accounts for about 70 percent of group revenue.

"The macro outlook suggests Europe is more likely to deteriorate than improve," Peel Hunt analyst Henry Carver said in a note to clients, reducing his adjusted pretax profit estimate for 2015 by 5 percent.

eCommerce sales growth in the period was around 5 percent.

Electrocomponents, whose brands include RS Components and Allied Electronics and DesignSpark, says it typically supplies electronics design engineers, machine and panel builders and maintenance engineers.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the company were down 4.3 percent at 210.3 pence at 0746 GMT on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) . (1 US dollar = 0.6166 British pound) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bangalore; Editing by Sunil Nair)