Premier Farnell profit falls on subdued Americas, Europe sales

Sept 18 (Reuters) - Premier Farnell Plc (LSE: PFL.L - news) , a distributor of small electronics and electronic parts, reported a 4.5 percent fall in first-half pretax profit, hurt by subdued sales in its marketing and distribution division in the Americas and Europe.

Pretax profit for the six months ended Aug. 3 fell to 36.4 million pounds ($59.3 million) from 38.1 million pounds a year earlier.

Revenue fell 3.8 percent to 479.3 million pounds.

The marketing and distribution business accounted for about 80 percent of Premier (NasdaqGS: PINC - news) 's total turnover last year.

Premier Farnell sells roughly half a million products ranging from batteries to CCTV cameras in more than 100 countries through its websites including Newark, Farnell and element 14. (1 US dollar = 0.6133 British pound) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)