* Sees future for print business
* Branching into mobile media
* Open to acquisitions, including Germany
By Michel Rose
PARIS, April 29 (Reuters) - French Spir Communication, which operates free advertising newspapers and real-estate websites, sees a future for its print business, the head of its media division said.
Spir saw a 28 percent drop in first-quarter sales at its print unit while its Web division grew 8.4 percent.
However, the company still considers its free publications to be indispensible, Jean-Christophe Serfati told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"Print and Web are a couple. Fifty-eight percent of our Web visitors came through one of our paper publications," Serfati said.
The group, whose results were impacted by the slump in the housing sector in a "lacklustre advertising market", ruled out following rival SeLoger.com into Web-only advertising.
"The TV did not kill the radio, so we see no reason to give up on our bi-media strategy, even if we need to find the right balance," Serfati said.
He said that the group was moving to a "tri-media strategy" to include mobile media.
"Mobile media are a sector on the rise. Our new iPhone application is in the top ten of the most downloaded applications," Serfati said.
Web activities accounted for 16 percent of the total first-quarter sales in its classified division and print contributed 84 percent.
Spir publishes 10 million magazines every week in France, competing with AdenClassifieds, and 1.5 million magazines every two weeks in its other European markets, which include the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Hungary.
The group also set up a confidence index last November about the housing market based on Web users' intentions to acquire a property.
"The housing market is seeing its worst contraction since the war. But in my view, it has touched the bottom. Rates have never been so low and it is more about psychological than macro-economic issues," he said.
Serfati founded free real estate advertising magazine Logic-Immo in Marseille in 1995 and it was acquired by Spir in 2007.
Asked if the group would continue its expansion into other European countries, Serfati said: "If tomorrow, an acquisition opportunity comes up, in Germany for instance, I would look at it - Why not?"
Shares in Spir Communication were down 1 percent at 14.80 euros at 1335 GMT, giving the company a market value of 93.4 million euros ($122.8 million). The stock has lost 24 percent so far this year, after dropping more than 72 percent in 2008.