Rentokil looks to Latin America, Asia for further growth

* FY pretax up 58.4 pct at 163.2 mln stg

* To pay final div of 1.82p/shr, total up 12 pct at 2.59p

* Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) up 2pct, hit 12-month high (Adds CEO comments, details)

By Li-mei Hoang

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - British outsourcing firm Rentokil Initial said it was looking to Latin America and Asia for further growth in the year ahead, after strong demand for its pest control services led to a 58.4 percent rise in full-year pretax profit.

Chief Executive Andy Ransom said he planned to spend around 50 million pounds ($77 million) on acquisitions this year in the two emerging market regions, as well as in North America and Britain, but added this figure could be higher.

The company, which generates around 90 percent of its revenue outside Britain, completed 30 deals in the past year, 23 of which were either in its two main emerging markets or in Britain and North America, spending 68 million pounds.

Ransom said the group had made strong progress overall but cautioned that some parts of Europe remained challenging for the group, which has undergone a transformation involving the disposal of its facilities management arm and its parcels delivery business in the past two years.

The company, which offers services from pest control to work wear supply, posted a full-year pretax profit of 163.2 million pounds for the year ended Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . 31. It said it would pay a final dividend of 1.82 pence per share to give a total for the year of 2.59p, up 12 percent.

Shares in the company jumped to a 12-month high of 133.6p and were 2 percent higher at 132p by 0817 GMT, making it one of the biggest gainers in the FTSE 250 index of mid-sized stocks.

Rentokil also said it was launching a hygiene sensing service enabling customers in healthcare or food management to work out how many people are washing their hands, evidence of a commitment to innovation.

"For 2015, you are going to see more evidence of our innovation programme adding to that overall growth that we have been delivering," said Ransom. ($1 = 0.6481 pounds) (Editing by David Holmes)