MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - Mexican restaurant and

cafe chain operator Alsea posted a first quarter net

profit that dipped by nearly a quarter, hitting some 335 million

pesos ($16.3 million) on Tuesday.

The Mexican multinational, which operates high profile

restaurant chains as Domino's or Starbucks ( SBUX ) in Europe and Latin

America, reported revenues up 12.8% over January to March,

landing at around 20.0 billion pesos.

Analysts polled by LSEG expected a first quarter net profit

of 697.1 million pesos, from revenues of 20.32 billion pesos.

($1 = 20.4604 pesos at end-March)