UPDATE 1-Vietnam insurer PVI sees 2008 profit up 60 pct-paper

(Adds details, share price)

HANOI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Petrovietnam Insurance Corporation PVI.HN, Vietnam's third-largest insurer, expects a 60 percent profit jump to 400 billion dong ($24.8 million) this year, an executive was quoted on Friday as saying.

Chairman Le Van Hung said PVI, the fifth-largest on the Hanoi stock market .HASTCI, made a profit of 250 billion dong last year, a rise of 400 percent from 2006, the Securities Investment newspaper reported.

It did not say whether the profit was gross or net, but Hanoi-based PVI repored a net profit of 44 billion dong in 2006.

PVI expected revenues to rise to 2.4 trillion dong this year from 1.91 trillion dong last year, Hung was quoted as saying.

Shares in PVI, which made their debut on the Hanoi exchange last August, were flat at 74,000 dong at 0211 GMT on Friday, valuing the firm at around $550 million.

An insurance arm of state oil and gas Petrovietnam group, PVI is Vietnam's second-largest firm in non-life insurance after Bao Viet and had a 97.49 percent share of the energy sector insurance market, the Securities Investment newspaper said.

Vietnam's insurance sector has grown rapidly in recent years as the economy has grown around 8 percent in each of the past four years. The government aims to accelerate growth to 9 percent this year after an expansion of 8.48 percent in 2007.

Overall, PVI is the third-largest insurer after Bao Viet, in which HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) has a 10-percent stake, and Bao Minh Insurance Corporation BMI.HN, which sold 16.6 percent of its shares to French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA) last year. ($1=16,105 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)