TUI Travel annual profit rises 11 pct, beating forecasts

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - British travel group TUI Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) , reporting its last set of annual results before it merges with Germany's TUI AG (Xetra: TUAG00 - news) , said profit rose 11 percent, beating forecasts, and the coming tie-up would accelerate long-term growth.

Underlying operating profit for the year ended September came in at 654 million pounds ($1.03 billion) on a constant currency basis, compared to a company-supplied analyst consensus forecast of 640 million pounds.

TUI in October said that operating profit would rise by at least 9 percent, the upper end of its previous guidance for growth of between 7 percent and 10 percent.

In September, the company and its German part-owner TUI AG reached an agreement on the terms of a 6.5 billion euro merger to create the world's largest leisure tourism group and the tie-up is due to formally complete later this month.

"The merger with TUI AG will strengthen and future-proof our combined Group," TUI Travel's chief executive Peter Long said in a statement.

(1 US dollar = 0.6378 British pound) (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Karolin Schaps)