UPDATE 4-SGS sees strong 2012 sales after broad 2011 demand

* SGS full-year net profit falls 9 pct to 534 mln Sfr

* Misses forecast of 542 mln Sfr

* Eyes strong sales growth in 2012, higher operating income

* Shares rise 2.3 pct (Adds quotes and detail from press conference)

By Katie Reid and Tom Miles

ZURICH/GENEVA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - SGS SA, the world's largest inspection services company, expects more sales growth in 2012 thanks to healthy demand driven partly by a buoyant energy sector and a trend towards more regulation.

The Swiss-based group, whose activities include checking toy safety and inspecting London's black cabs, said net profit slipped 9 percent in 2011 to 534 million francs ($560 million), below forecasts, due to the strong Swiss currency.

"We expect continued strong organic growth," said Chief Executive Chris Kirk. "All of our businesses are expecting to grow in 2012," he said. "We don't see any slowing down because we still have market share gains that we can make, for example in consumer products."

The Geneva-based group, which competes with Intertek and Bureau Veritas, has been benefiting from strength in energy-related businesses and an increase in regulation generally.

At 1106 GMT, shares in the group, which have already gained over 4 percent so far this year, were trading 2.3 percent higher, outperforming a 1.3 percent rise in the European industrial goods and services index.

"The top-line growth acceleration in second half came as a surprise to us. Nobody was expecting such a development. The slight margin drop at constant currencies is in line with management's guidance back in 2010," Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy said.

TRADE FINANCE

The group, which had warned that higher second-half investments and the franc would weigh on profitability, said its operating income margin fell to 17 percent from 17.4 percent.

One of the risks it could face in 2012 is a slowdown in trade finance.

"From our discussions with a number of traders, the banks are being a little bit tight in terms of lending to fulfil commodity trades," Kirk said.

A slight concern for the minerals services division, where sales grew 23.5 percent in 2011, was commodity prices coming off their peaks, Kirk said.

"Financing for some of the mining companies may become an issue," he said, referring to Toronto-listed miners.

Full-year sales edged up 0.8 percent to 4.8 billion francs after the franc ate into its top line, with only one of its 92 reporting currencies appreciating against the Swiss franc in 2011. On a constant currency basis, sales rose 13.7 percent.

"We have to rebase everything on a constant currency basis or the Swiss franc is going to eat us alive," Kirk said.

SGS is aiming for sales of 8 billion francs by 2014, but it has cautioned the franc, which soared to record highs in 2011, could make it hard to reach that target.

The Swiss National Bank has capped the value of the franc at 1.20 per euro since September, a boon to Swiss firms trying to compete abroad.

If the currency peg holds, the average exchange rate in 2012 could be stable compared to 2011, when it averaged 1.23 francs per euro, Chief Financial Officer Geraldine Matchett said.

"We've taken a big swing this year. If the world was to stay as it is, we wouldn't see this massive headwind," she said.

SGS said is sticking to its investment programme to support its 2014 goals and is lining up a new wave of acquisitions.

"The (acquisition) pipeline is a good pipeline," said Jean Luc de Buman, head of corporate development.

"We have plenty of projects ready to be closed in the next few weeks or months. It's hard to say about the magnitude, but I would have difficulty to say it will be slower (than in 2011)."

But he said there was no rush to invest Swiss francs to guard against a possible re-pegging of the currency, which some market participants say could come later in 2012.

The group's board will recommend an unchanged dividend of 65 francs per share. The group also said its board had given the go-ahead for a share buyback programme of up to 250 million francs. ($1 = 0.9537 Swiss francs) (Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters, David Holmes and Jane Merriman)