Wessanen not yet in talks over North American ops

* Strategic review to be completed in September

* Speculation over strategic fit with United Natural Foods

* Wessanen shares up 6.9 pct

AMSTERDAM, June 10 (Reuters) - Dutch food group Wessanen NV (BSWSc.AS) said it was not in concrete talks over a sale of its North American operations and was still studying a potential sale, although its shares rose on speculation of a future deal.

Wessanen said in April it was considering exiting all of its North American businesses -- including its key Tree of Life (TOL) distribution unit -- to focus on Europe, as part of a plan to streamline its activities and shore up its finances. [ID:nLM143258]

"We are in a phase of searching the feasibility of the sale of our U.S. operations, which means we have not yet started any concrete negotiations," spokesman Adriaan Robertson said.

Shares in Wessanen jumped 21 percent when it announced the possible U.S. exit on April 22 and have generally stayed at those highs since, supported by speculation of a potential deal.

Wessanen shares rose again on Wednesday, up 6.9 percent to 3.29 euros by 1330 GMT compared with a 1.6 percent rise in the Amsterdam midcap index .AMX.

"There is a lot of speculation in the market," an Amsterdam trader said. "With a stock that is at three euros, you don't need much of a fantasy."

Analyst Pascale Weber at KBC Securities earlier said in a research note that U.S.-based United Natural Foods (UNFI.O) would be a natural predator for Wessanen's Tree of Life business because of its combined offering including specialty food.

"Synergies will be significant in terms of purchasing, back-office and supply chain," Weber said in the note.

UNFI was not immediately available for comment.

"In theory it would be a good match between the two as they are the only country wide distributors of organic and specialty foods," RBS analyst Jeroen van Harten said.

But Van Harten said UNFI's acquisition of specialty food distributor Millbrook in 2007 had not been a tremendous success and the company might be reluctant to take on another acquisition as UNFI's assortment, after that acquisition, covers the full spectrum, ranging from natural to specialty foods.

He added Tree of Life and UNFI also differ in terms of their business models as Tree of Life offers a full service model to customers, while UNFI has more of a "bare bones" service model.

KBC's Weber also said there was talk an investment group was seeking to buy three distributors, including Tree of Life.

Wessanen, which reported a 98 percent fall in first-quarter operating profit in May, has said it plans to provide more details on its strategic review in the third quarter and spokesman Robertson reiterated that timeline. (Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter and Simon Jessop)