* Underlying Q4 sales down 7.5 pct
* Darty like-for-like sales down 5.8 pct, margins stable
* Comet LFL sales down 7.3 pct, margin down 130 basis points
* Menaje Del Hogar to post higher than anticipated loss
* Shares up 3.3 pct after recent sharp falls
(Adds CEO, analyst comments, updates shares)
By James Davey
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - Kesa Electricals, Europe's third-biggest electrical goods retailer, on Thursday reported sales declining faster in the first four months of 2009 than at the end of last year but said annual profit met expectations.
Kesa, which owns French market leader Darty, Britain's second-biggest electrical goods retailer Comet and trades in another 10 nations, said it had a net cash position but forecast 2009-10 would be another "challenging year".
The group also said its troubled Spanish business Menaje Del Hogar would post higher than anticipated full-year retail losses of 26 million euros and would be restructured, with the closure of stores, a warehouse and distribution centre, the streamlining of head office functions and staff cuts.
These actions, which will necessitate a 10 million euro ($14 million) exceptional charge, will generate annual cost savings of about 11 million pounds, said Kesa.
The firm said Comet was also taking a 9 million pounds exceptional charge following the consolidation of distribution and service centres and a cut in head office staff. It said annualised cost savings would be about 14 million pounds.
Kesa said group-wide sales at stores open at least a year fell 7.5 percent in the 16 weeks to April 30. That followed a 5.5 percent fall in the 10 weeks to Jan. 8 but was slightly better than analysts' expectations.
"During the period, overall the group traded in line with its markets. A strong focus on managing gross margin and costs helped us deliver a cashflow and retail profit performance for the full year (to April 30) in line with expectations," said chief executive Thierry Falque-Pierrotin, who succeeded Jean-Noel Labroue in January.
Falque-Pierrotin will outline his plans for Kesa on June 24 when the group publishes full year results.
But in a conference call for analysts he drew some early conclusions.
"We need to address the losses in Spain and build scale in Italy and Turkey, (and) develop further initiatives across the group to face difficult trading conditions," he said.
Kesa shares, which had fallen nearly 20 percent this month, were up 3.3 percent at 111.5 pence at 1009 GMT.
Prior to Thursday's update analysts were forecasting an underlying pretax profit of 66.2 million pounds ($100 million), according to Reuters' Estimates, down from 128.5 million pounds in the previous year.
Darty's like-for-like sales fell 5.8 percent with gross margins stable, while Comet's like-for-like sales fell 7.3 percent with its gross margin down about 130 basis points.
At Kesa's other businesses division, which comprises BCC, Vanden Borre, Datart, Darty Italy, Darty Switzerland, Darty Turkey and Menaje Del Hogar, underlying sales fell 12.4 percent. Menaje Del Hogar's fell over 30 percent.
"The company has a valuable asset in Darty, which encouragingly managed to hold on to gross margins, has a relatively strong balance sheet with freehold property but does not have the restructuring attractions of DSG International Plc ," Europe's second biggest electricals retailer, said analysts at Seymour Pierce in a research note.
(Editing by David Cowell) ($1 = 0.6592 pound)