AccorHotels eyes higher profit despite Brexit, Europe attacks

PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) - AccorHotels on Wednesday predicted its operating profit would rise further this year as Europe's largest hotel group reaps the fruits of its restructuring.

The world's fifth-largest hotel group said it would get a boost in the second half from recently acquired Fairmont Raffles International group (CIM.CN - news) but expressed caution about the impact of Britain's vote to leave the European Union and attacks in France and Germany.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) added that situation in Turkey was "still difficult to measure."

AccorHotels, undergoing an overhaul begun by Chief Executive Sebastien Bazin in 2013, forecast a 2016 operating profit of between 670 million euros ($736.20 million) and 720 million euros, compared with 665 million in 2015. A ThomsonReuters poll produced a forecast of 713 million euros.

First (Other OTC: FSTC - news) -half operating profit fell 4 percent like-for-like to 239 million euros, below the Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) average estimate of 257 million euro, as weak trading in France and Brazil weighed on trading.

($1 = 0.9101 euros) (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Astrid Wendlandt)