UPDATE 3-Novozymes sees better 2010 after Q4 profits rise

* Q4 EBIT 431 mln DKK, above avg forecast of 409 mln

* Company forecasts higher 2010 sales and earnings

* Sees 2010 operating profit growth of 3-7 pct

* Shares fall as analysts say 2010 guidance cautious (Adds details, company comments)

By Teis Jensen and John Acher

COPENHAGEN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Novozymes (NZYMb.CO), the world's top industrial enzymes maker, posted forecast-beating fourth-quarter earnings on the back of strong detergent enzymes sales, but its shares fell after it issued a cautious outlook for 2010.

Novozymes forecast 2010 sales growth of 2-6 percent in local currencies and operating profit growth of 3-7 percent.

"Looking at 2010, we expect a positive development but with continued low visibility," Chief Executive Steen Riisgaard said in the report.

Novozymes said it maintained its global market share of 47 percent in the enzymes business, and said the world market was worth about 16 billion Danish crowns ($3.05 billion) in 2009, unchanged from 2008.

"When we only guide for 2-6 percent revenue growth in local currencies it is also a reflection of the continued enormous uncertainty in the market," Chief Financial Officer Benny Loft told Reuters.

Loft said he saw some good trends driving sales, such as in detergent and bioethanol enzymes, but he said the food and feed enzymes business would provide less impetus in 2010.

The company forecast a 2010 operating profit margin of around 20 percent, a level it reached in 2009.

Sydbank analyst Rune Dahl said the 2010 guidance was on the weak side. "But I think that is due to caution because the company doesn't know exactly where the market is going." He said he would keep his underweight recommendation on the stock.

Operating profit rose to 431 million crowns ($82.3 million) in the fourth quarter from 370 million a year earlier and beat an average forecast of 409 million in a Reuters poll of analysts. [ID:nLDE60E1PO]

But Novozymes shares fell 1.4 percent to 548 crowns by 1518 GMT, against a 0.7 percent rise in the European pharma, biotech and life sciences index .MIEU0PB00PEU.

Fourth-quarter sales grew 13 percent in local currencies and 7 percent in Danish crowns from a year earlier, also towards the high end of analysts' expectations. Full-year 2009 sales grew 2 percent in local currency and 4 percent in crowns.

"We believe that when the dust settles after the crisis, we will return to growth of 10 percent annually which is our long-term target," Riisgaard told a news conference.

The head of the enzymes division, Peder Holk Nielsen, said that if 2010 turned out like 2009 and the global economy goes into a "double dip", then sales growth would be in the low end of the 2-6 percent guidance range.

But he said that if the global economy normalises faster than expected in 2010, sales growth could exceed 6 percent.

Sydbank analyst Rune Dahl said: "The fourth quarter was a bit better than expected on the top line, primarily due to detergent enzymes and due to Europe where there is an increased focus on climate and cold washing so we are seeing more enzymes in detergents."

Enzymes for detergents make up nearly a third of Novozymes sales. The group also supplies enzymes to the food industry and for bioethanol production, which is seen as a future growth area.

BIOFUEL HOPES

Novozymes and rival Danisco DCO.CO, which sell enzymes to the bioethanol industry, have pinned big hopes on supplying the industry for so-called second-generation biofuels made from farm wastes including straw, rather than food crops such as corn.

Novozymes said its sales growth expectations are based on the assumptions that there would be no weakening of demand in the major industries it supplies and that U.S. biofuel production for 2010 will be 12-12.5 billion gallons.

Sydbank's Dahl said that for U.S. bioethanol output to reach that level would require political decisions in mid-2010 to boost the amount of biofuel mixed into gasoline. ($1=5.239 Danish Crown) (Additional reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Peter Levring) (Editing by Mike Nesbit and Rupert Winchester)