MILAN, July 26 (Reuters) - Italian energy group Eni

said on Friday its second-quarter adjusted net profit

fell 21% year-on-year, but beat market expectations thanks to a

stronger than anticipated performance at its upstream and Gas &

LNG divisions.

Between April and June adjusted net profit came in at 1.52

billion euros ($1.65 billion), down from 1.94 billion a year

ago, but above an analyst consensus of 1.42 billion.

During the past quarter the energy group pressed ahead with

divestments, signing a deal to sell upstream assets in Alaska

and announcing exclusive talks with investment firm KKR

to dispose of a stake in its biofuel unit Enilive.

Thanks to these moves, Eni said it now expected its leverage

ratio, which measures total debt in relation to equity, to be

significantly below 0.2 by year end, better than its original

projection.

"This will enable us to speed up the execution of our

1.6 billion euro share buyback program and confirm our delivery

of both business growth and shareholder returns," Eni Chief

Executive Claudio Descalzi said in a statement.

The state-controlled group also said it was improving its

2024 pro-forma adjusted operating profit guidance to around 15

billion euros. In April it had guided for earnings before

interest and tax (EBIT) of more than 14 billion euros this year.

($1 = 0.9209 euros)

(Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Giulia Segreti and

Valentina Za)