UPDATE 1-Greene King upbeat on trading as FY profit rises

* FY pretax profit 123 mln stg vs f'cst 124.9 mln

* 1st 6 weeks managed pub comparable sales up 6 percent

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LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - British pubs company Greene King (GNK.L) reported a 3.8 percent increase in full-year pretax profit on Thursday and said it had made an encouraging start to its current fiscal year.

Suffolk-based Greene King, which operates 2,472 pubs and restaurants across Britain, reported a pretax profit of 123 million pounds ($184 million) in the year to May 2.

Market expectations had ranged between 121.5 million and 130 million pounds with the average forecast being 124.9 million, according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 16 analysts.

Greene King said it had traded strongly in the first eight weeks of its new fiscal year to June 27 with like-for-like sales at its managed pubs division up 6 percent on the previous year.

"The overall Greene King performance in the first two months of the year has been encouraging and ahead of our expectations for the period," said Chief Executive Rooney Anand.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Sarah Young)

($1=.6697 Pound)