Havas' sales growth accelerates, beats bigger rivals

(Adds details, recasts)

PARIS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - French advertising agency Havas (Other OTC: HAVSF - news) saw organic sales growth accelerate in the second quarter to hit 8 percent compared with the same period last year, outperforming larger rivals such as Omnicom and WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) .

First (Other OTC: FSTC - news) -half net profit grew 6.9 percent to 62 million euros ($81.7 million) thanks in part to double-figure revenue growth in the United Kingdom, Asia Pacific and Africa regions.

Second-quarter revenue stood at 478 million euros, ahead of UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) analysts' forecast for sales of 463 million euros, helped by new contracts with companies including Disney and Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) .

Havas Shares were up 2.7 percent to 6.21 euros at 1534 GMT, compared with a 0.8 percent drop in Europe's media index .

Chief Executive Yannick Bollore said the company was looking forward to the second half of the year "with confidence."

(1 US dollar = 0.7585 euro) (Reporting by Leila Abboud and Andrew Callus; Editing by James Regan and Mark Potter)