UK's Home Retail to write down Homebase value

LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Home Retail Group Plc (HOME.L) expects to write down the value of its DIY business Homebase by several hundred million pounds when it publishes first-half results on Oct. 22, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Terry Duddy told reporters Homebase currently has a carrying value of just under 1 billion pounds ($1.8 billion), while analysts' valuations range from just 100 million pounds to 300 million.

"If you took a mid range of that as your very basic number, which is 200, that ... gives you the very biggest number you could get, (800 million pounds). It is likely to be less than that," he said.

Finance Director Richard Ashton said Home Retail's first-half underlying pretax profit was likely to fall to around 125 million pounds from 150 million pounds last time. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by David Holmes)