UPDATE 2-Agility profit falls, shares up on expansion plan

(Adds details, background, analyst, shares)

By Ulf Laessing and Rania El Gamal

KUWAIT, March 23 (Reuters) - Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility's (AGLT.KW: Quote, Profile, Research) profit fell after a string of acquisitions, yet its shares rallied as investors focused on the its dividends and plans to seek cash to reduce exposure to U.S. defence deals.

Fourth quarter profit fell 10.5 percent to 34.9 million dinars ($130.7 million), according to Reuters calculations from full year data released on Sunday by the Gulf's largest logistics company by market value.

Agility reported a full-year net profit of 153.9 million dinars on Sunday without giving quarterly figures.

Full-year earnings per share fell to 161.86 fils last year from 176.84 fils in 2006, Agility said. There are 1,000 fils to the dinar.

Bikash Rout, senior financial analyst at Global Investment House, said Agility was facing higher operating costs as it moved away from state contracts, mainly from the Pentagon, into the private-sector freight business.

"The company has made a good number of acquisitions in the past few years and expenditure has gone up significantly," Rout said.

Agility said it had made eight acquisitions last year and wanted to expand into emerging markets to reduce exposure to U.S. government deals to supply troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.