UPDATE 2-Publisher Hearst ups stake in Fitch ratings

* Fimalac to sell Fitch stake for 300 mln euros

* Fimalac Q3 revenue edges up from year earlier

* Hearst to own 40 pct of Fitch, might up stake to 50 pct
(Adds background on Hearst Corp, NEW YORK dateline)

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Robert MacMillan

PARIS/NEW YORK, July 24 (Reuters) - French financial
services and data group Fimalac (LBCP.PA) said on Friday that
it would sell a 20 percent stake in its Fitch credit rating
company to U.S. media company Hearst Corp.

Hearst will own 40 percent of Fitch, while Fimalac will
retain a 60 percent stake in the company. Fimalac also might
consider selling another 10 percent in Fitch in coming years,
the company's founder and majority shareholder Marc Ladreit de
Lacharriere said.

The deal allows Hearst to get more revenue from a source
outside its traditional media properties.

The privately held company runs a 122-year-old publishing
empire in the United States, and owns newspapers such as the
San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle. It owns
magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Esquire.

It also holds equity stakes in Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N)
ESPN sports network and A&E Television Networks, which it
co-owns with Disney and General Electric Co's (GE.N) NBC
Universal.

Hearst closed one of its U.S. papers, The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, this year, and is facing pressure from a
decline in advertising revenue that has battered U.S.
newspapers and magazines.

A Hearst spokesman was not immediately available for
comment.

Fitch, Moody's Corp (MCO.N) and McGraw Hill's (MHP.N)
Standard & Poor's dominate the market for credit ratings, which
heavily influence how investors, bondholders and the public
perceive the financial health of companies as well as towns,
states and other municipalities.

Lawmakers and some investors have chided the agencies for
giving stellar ratings to bundles of debt that actually
comprised U.S. subprime mortgages at high risk of default.

Losses on these high-risk mortgages helped spawn the credit
crisis.

Fimalac also said that revenue for the third quarter to
June 30 had edged up to 128.7 million euros ($182.7 million)
from 128.6 million a year earlier.

Fimalac shares closed down 3.9 percent at 38.04 euros,
giving the company a market capitalisation of around 1.2
billion euros. The stock has risen around 70 percent since the
start of 2009, having fallen 53 percent last year.
($1=.7043 Euro)
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris and Robert MacMillan in
New York; editing by Karen Foster and Matthew Lewis)