News: VEA UPDATE 1-Caltex Australia's full-year profit falls over 38% on weak margins

(Adds details on financial results, background)

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Takeover target Caltex Australia (CTX) reported a more than 38% fall in full-year profit on Tuesday, hurt by weakness in refining and retail fuel margins coupled with lower earnings from its Lytton lubricants refinery.

The refiner, which also runs petrol stations along with convenience stores, said its full-year net profit on a "replacement cost" basis was A$344 million ($227.97 million), which was slightly above the midpoint of its own forecast of between A$320 million and A$360 million.

It posted underlying net earnings of A$558 million last year.

The company has been under pressure to revive growth as weak consumer demand and a spike in crude prices due to geopolitical tensions have squeezed margins. Rival Viva Energy (VEA) also reported an about 54% drop in profit on Monday.

Caltex's annual revenue rose about 3% to A$22.35 billion. The bidding war for Caltex heated up after it disclosed a$3.9 billion plus offer from privately held EG Group just days after Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc ATDb.TO sweetened its final bid to get access to conduct further due-diligence on the refiner.

Caltex also announced a fully franked dividend of 51 Australian cents per share for the second half of fiscal 2019.

($1 = 1.5090 Australian dollars)