Royal Mail sees lower operating costs for full year

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's postal firm Royal Mail said it expected underlying operating costs for its UK letters and parcels business to be at least 1 percent lower for the full year after it posted flat revenue for the first half. The company posted revenue of 4.4 billion pounds for the six months ended September 27, in line with analyst expectations. Adjusted pretax profit fell 16 percent to 240 million pounds, it said. Royal Mail, privatised in 2013, said on Thursday it had delivered a "resilient" performance in the six months ended September 27, in a competitive trading environment. (Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, Editing by Paul Sandle)