UPDATE 2-Low & Bonar H1 profit falls, scraps dividend

* H1 normalised profit down 14 pct * Sees improvement in H2 profit

* Says comfortable with market view for FY normalised profit

* Shares fall as much as 12 pct (Recasts; adds CEO comments, share movement)

By Tresa Sherin Morera

BANGALORE, July 13 (Reuters) - Specialist materials group Low & Bonar Plc (LWB.L) posted a 14 percent fall in first-half adjusted pretax profit mainly on lower volumes, and said it did not plan to pay an interim dividend, sending its shares down as much as 12 percent.

However, the company said it expected a materially improved second-half profit as it saw a slight recovery in year-on-year overall sales and, as a result, its full-year profit forecast remained unchanged.

"Typically our second-half is always the stronger half for us because we tend to be weighted to the summer as we are serving the road and rail construction, the artificial grass pitch," Chief Executive Paul Forman told Reuters.

Forman also said the board was "not uncomfortable" with the market forecast for full-year normalised profit of 13 million pounds ($20.9 million) to 15.5 million pounds.

"We have in rough terms on annualized basis may be 15 million pounds less cost in our business than we did this time last year," the CEO added.

Low & Bonar -- a supplier of yarn, fabric and fibre to end markets like civil engineering, transport, sport and leisure -- has reduced its workforce by 12 percent from year-ago levels.

The company, which paid an interim dividend of 1.925 pence last year, also invested about 2.5 million pounds in the first half in a start-up grass yarn joint venture in Abu Dhabi, Bonar Emirates Technical Yarns.

"We continue to look at other investments in the Middle East to serve Middle East and the Asian sub-continent in particular," Forman said.

For the six months ended May 31, the company said its pretax profit before amortisation and non-recurring items fell to 5.1 million pounds from 5.9 million pounds last year. Revenue decreased 11 percent to 130.5 million pounds.

Low & Bonar shares were down 5 percent at 23.75 pence at 0909 GMT on the London Stock Exchange. They hit a low of 22 pence earlier in the session.

($1=.6214 Pound) (Editing by Anne Pallivathuckal)