UPDATE 1-Finmeccanica 9-mth adj net profit beats fcasts

* Adjusted net profit rose by 6 pct

* Revenue climbs 30 pct, EBITDA up 46 pct

ROME, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Italian air and defence company Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI) beat forecasts with a 6 percent rise in nine-month net profit on Thursday, excluding the effect of a one-off gain last year, and confirmed its 2009 targets on the back of solid sales growth.

Rome-based Finmeccanica, which has barely been affected by the global downturn except for a pinch in civil aeronautics and helicopters, reported an 18 percent growth in new orders and an improvement in its operating margins. Sales for the first nine months of the year grew by 30 percent to 12.64 billion euros ($18.77 billion), comfortably topping the consensus estimate in a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 14 analysts of 12.532 euros.

Net profit came in at 364 million euros, higher than the Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S consensus of 348.6 million euros. Excluding the special gain last year, net profit rose by 6 percent but if the one-off was taken into account it fell by 8 percent.

Reflecting a solid improvement in operating profits, adjusted nine-month EBITDA rose by 46 percent to 885 million euros.

The company confirmed its 2009 revenue target of 17.1 to 17.7 billion euros. CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini said recently he expects the company, which has more than doubled its annual revenues since 2004, to reach 20 billion euros by 2013. Net financial debt rose sharply year-on-year to 5.22 billion euros at the end of September, versus 2.71 billion a year earlier. ($1=.6734 Euro) (Reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Daniel Flynn; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)