(Corrects first paragraph to say revenues instead of profit)
* Q1 sales up 12.4 percent at 3.543 bln, up 8.8 percent comparable * Gas and Services sales reach record level
* Group confirms expects to grow net profit this year
* Q1 investments and agreed investments nearly 500 million euros
(Adds analyst comment, detail from statement, background)
PARIS, April 26 (Reuters) - Air Liquide posted a better-than-expected 12.4 percent rise in its first-quarter revenues thanks to buoyant growth in developing economies and kept its forecast for net profit growth this year.
The French industrial gases maker said on Tuesday that the number of contracts signed in the quarter continued at a strong pace and that investments and agreed investments or contracts in the pipeline, reached nearly 500 million euros.
Sales, excluding the effects from natural gas, used to produce hydrogen, and currency swings, grew a greater than expected 8.8 percent to 3.543 billion euros ($4.95 billion).
Gas and Services sales, which take up the bulk of the business, rose 15.4 percent to 3.185 billion -- their highest level ever.
The average result of a Reuters poll among 11 analysts was for sales of 3.495 billion euros and gas and services sales of 3.080 billion.
"These are solid results and above consensus," said CA Cheuvreux analyst Klaus Ringel. "There's an ongoing strong momentum of businesses signed which is increasing very well and is going in the right direction in achieving their mid and long term objectives."
Air Liquide saw a wide gap between its growth in mature economies, still on the mend from the financial crisis, and developing economies which are investing heavily in their industrial infrastructures.
The Asia Pacific region bolstered Air Liquide gas and services sales by 36 percent against 10 percent growth in Europe and the Americas.
Air Liquide expects to benefit from a push to cleaner forms of energy. It supplies ultra pure gases to makers of solar cells and only last week announced the sealing of 15 new long-term contracts with photovoltaic companies in Asia and Germany.
The impact of the natural and nuclear disaster in Japan as well as political unrest in Africa and the Middle East has been very limited, Air Liquide said.
Air Liquide's sales precede those of U.S. rival Praxair and its main competitor Germany's Linde.
Air Liquide makes gases like oxygen for the steel sector, argon for welding, nitrogen for chip makers or hydrogen for refineries, which it delivers through pipeline networks that total 8,500 kilometres or in cylinders for small gas quantities.
Air Liquide shares closed at 97.90 euros on April 21, before the Easter break. The stock has climbed 3.44 percent this year.
(Reporting by Caroline Jacobs, Editing by Christian Plumb)