* Pretax profit 26 million pounds vs 18 million * FY dividend up 15 percent to 11.8 pence
* Increasing focus on acquisitions as valuations fall
* Shares up 1 percent (Adds CEO comments, analyst reaction, share price)
By Ben Deighton
LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - British coal miner Hargreaves said the chance of it making acquisitions has increased after it reported full-year pretax profit up by 47 percent due to a focus on higher-margin markets like solar panels.
"The likelihood's moved up in the last couple of months. There's every likelihood that we'll be looking to do acquisitions in the next 12 months," Chief Executive Gordon Banham told Reuters on Tuesday.
"We're now starting to see much more realistic valuations appear on potential acquisitions."
Hargreaves, which owns the Maltby coal mine in the centre of England, is looking at up to 10 possible targets, any of which could be as much as 20 million pounds ($33.30 million), Banham said.
"Accretive acquisitions will add extra spice," said analyst James Wheatcroft at Evolution in a note to clients, adding that the company would be re-rated as its relative protection from commodity prices becomes clearer.
He reiterated his "buy" recommendation, and increased his target to 700 pence per share from 650 pence.
For the full year ended May 31, Hargreaves earned pretax profit of 26 million pounds, on revenues up 24 percent to 503 million pounds.
The profit increase was driven by an increased focus on higher margin coal markets such as solar panel production and the ferro-alloy industry.
It hiked its planned full-year dividend by 15 percent to 11.8 pence, and reiterated its confidence for the current year.
The company also benefited from its acquisition of Coal4Energy in January, which contributed revenues of 19.9 million pounds.
Shares in Hargreaves were up 1 percent to 631 pence per share at 0922 GMT, having risen during the past five months to highs not seen since September last year. (Editing by Matt Scuffham and Rupert Winchester) ($1=.6006 Pound)