UPDATE 2-MAN expects profit hit from Brazil

* Sees 2012 operating margin at 8.5 pct vs 9.0 pct

* Euro V emission standards to trigger Brazil market drop

* Booked Q4 impairment of 677 mln eur on Scania stake

* Shares up 1.6 pct (Adds more details, background)

By Andreas Cremer

MUNICH, Feb 14 (Reuters) - German truck maker MAN SE said profitability will take a hit this year from the impact of new emissions standards in Brazil which could push down demand in this key market by an estimated 15 percent in the first half.

The group said on Tuesday truck operators had bought new vehicles before the stricter emission requirements became law in Latin America's largest economy at the start of the year, taking away demand that would otherwise materialise this year.

As a result, operating margins would drop to around 8.5 percent of revenue from 9.0 percent in 2011.

Brazil is bringing its emissions standards into line this year with Europe's, known as Euro V, adopted in October 2008 .

"We expect the commercial vehicles market in Europe to stabilize around the 2011 level. In contrast, sales in Brazil will decline," finance chief Frank Lutz said in a statement on Tuesday.

Daimler, the world's biggest commercial vehicle manufacturer, has also predicted the pre-buy effect ahead of this year's introduction of Euro V in Brazil would lead the local market to shrink by 10-15 percent.

"Overall, revenue in the commercial vehicles business area is set to decrease slightly by up to 5 percent," Lutz said.

MAN expects operating margins at its core commercial vehicles division to fall to about 7 percent in 2012 from last year's 7.7 percent.

MAN vaulted to the top of the local market in Brazil after it bought the Volkswagen brand of heavy trucks in early 2009 for 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion).

It now plans to launch its own MAN brand in Brazil this year to take advantage of growing infrastructure spending ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The company's shares were up 1.6 percent at 83.65 euros by 0855 GMT and outperformed the broader market. Analysts pointed to the need for upward revisions to their more bearish margin forecasts.

INTEGRATION AHEAD

For the overall group, which includes its diesel and turbines business, consolidated revenue should decline slightly and pull operating profit down with it, MAN said.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, the company reported a rise in operating profit to 1.48 billion euros, just above consensus of 1.46 billion in a Reuters poll.

Volkswagen, which obtained final antitrust clearance in November to take over MAN, holds 56 percent of MAN's voting rights and aims to integrate the truckmaker with its Swedish truck brand Scania.

VW estimates that a combination may yield savings of at least 200 million euros per year, especially in procurement, production and research and development.

"The first project groups have been established and have started working on this," MAN said in its annual report.

MAN, which owns 17 percent of the votes in Scania, was forced to book a fourth quarter non-cash impairment charge of 677 million euros on the stake after reclassifying its stake as a financial investment early last year.

"The stake has been written down so far I don't see any further risk to the downside, if at all then to the upside," Lutz told reporters.

($1 = 0.7566 euros) (Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Christiaan Hetzner. Editing by Jane Merriman)