Newspaper distributor Connect Group full-year profit up on World Cup sales

Oct 15 (Reuters) - Connect Group Plc, the largest newspaper and magazine distributor in the UK, reported a marginal rise in full-year underlying pretax profit, as its newspaper division gained from a 15-million-pound revenue kick from the soccer World Cup.

The company, which changed its name from Smiths News Plc in March, said underlying pretax profit rose 0.2 percent to 50 million pounds ($79 million) in the year ended Aug. 31, from 49.9 million pounds a year earlier.

Underlying revenue rose 0.1 percent to 1.80 billion pounds. (1 US dollar = 0.6289 British pound) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bangalore; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)