MILAN, May 7 (Reuters) - Campari will seek

further M&A opportunties after completing the buyout of French

cognac house Courvoisier, the new head of the Italian drinks

group said on Tuesday.

The group completed the 1.22-billion euro ($1.3

billion)acquisition of Courvoisier last week, earlier than

expected by analysts. It was the largest ever deal for Campari,

whose brands include the Aperol aperitif, Espolon tequila and

Wild Turkey whisky.

"Our M&A activity will continue after Courvoisier, our

strategy is still to grow both organically and inorganically",

Chief Executive Matteo Fantacchiotti told Reuters in an

interview.

"What I can tell you is that we have as always a lot of

dossiers open and some negotiations that are reasonably

advanced", said Fantacchiotti, who took the helm of the company

in April, replacing longstanding head Bob Kunze-Concewitz.

The company earlier reported a 4.9% drop in operating profit

in the first quarter, broadly in line with expectations in what

is a relatively quiet time of the year. Fantacchiotti struck a

positive tone and said the outlook for the year remained

unchanged, helping to drive Campari's shares up 5%.

The company's operating profit came in at 151.5 million

euros while like-for-like sales edged up 0.2% to 663.5 million

euros in the quarter, helped by growth in demand for Campari and

Aperol.

The figures compared with 654 million euros in an LSEG

consensus for sales and a projection of 150 million euros for

the adjusted operating profit.

SPRITZ STILL IN DEMAND

Fantacchiotti said he saw further scope for growth in sales

of Aperol Spritz, while also highlighting the Espolon Paloma

cocktail and non-alcoholic Crodino as other drinks likely to

prove popular over the summer.

"We remain confident about continued growth momentum to

deliver profitable growth", he said.

Fantacchiotti said Campari remained "really confident" over

the group's ability to grow in China as part of a long term

strategy, also thanks to Courvoisier, which makes about 9% of

its sales in the country.

Beijing opened an anti-dumping investigation into brandy

imported from the European Union, potentially exposing cognac

makers to tariffs on their products.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday thanked

Chinese President Xi Jinping for what he called "his open

attitude" in the probe.

($1 = 0.9280 euros)

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Keith Weir

Editing by David Evans and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)