European shares rise, led higher by Carlsberg

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.8 pct

* Ahold, Henkel (Other OTC: HELKF - news) also rally after results

* Osram slumps after new strategy poorly received

* Overall earnings picture remains mixed

By Alistair Smout

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Wednesday, boosted by a spate of well-received earnings reports, with beverage firm Carlsberg (Other OTC: CABGY - news) higher after its new management outlined restructuring plans.

Denmark's Carlsberg rose as much as 9 percent after it said it would book a $1.4 billion impairment charge and cut staff to return to growth. Analysts welcomed the steps, adding that the brewer's earnings contained no negative surprises.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the brewer were last up 7.5 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 rose 0.8 percent, with Carlsberg the top riser, building on a rise of 0.2 percent in the previous session.

The index remains down 0.2 percent for the week, having fallen on Monday, with investors wary over a possible rate rise by the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Federal Reserve in December following strong jobs data.

With European stocks near three-month highs, some said there was enough conviction in the market to withstand a rise in rates.

"If there's a one-off rate rise from the Fed, the market has enough appetite in it to take it in its stride," Manoj Ladwa, head of trading at TJM Partners, said.

"But going forwards, there's still loose monetary in place from the European Central Bank, and that's largely supportive of equities."

Henkel rose 7.1 percent after the German consumer goods group posted a bigger than expected increase in third quarter key profit.

Ahold also rose after their own results, up 4.2 percent after the supermarket group met net sales forecasts and reported free-cash flow that was ahead of last year. Belgium's Delhaize also got a boost from Ahold's results, as the firms are set to complete a merger in mid-2016.

However, not all earnings were well received.

France's Vivendi (Milan: VIV.MI - news) was down 8 percent after it reported a lower third-quarter operating profit after market close on Tuesday, as its music and pay-television units struggled with competition and subscriber losses.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) also posted weaker than expected profits.

Osram shares tumbled more than 20 percent, the most ever, after the German lighting group announced a 3 billion-euro ($3.2 billion) growth strategy following the planned disposal of its traditional Lamps business.

In all, earnings season has been mixed. With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) around four fifths of companies having reported results, 50 percent of them have missed expectations, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine data.

JP Morgan Cazenove said that the number of earnings beats in Europe surprised negatively by 7 percent, although once energy was stripped out, the euro zone recorded stronger earnings growth than the United States and Japan, up 6 percent year-on-year.

"Analysts have low-balled expectations anyway ... so for earnings to come in weaker when expectations have already been lowered, it's a concern," TJM's Ladwa said.

Europe bourses in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v

Asset performance in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v

Today's European research round-up

(Editing by Tom Heneghan)