Germany's Beiersdorf, the maker of Nivea skin cream, on Wednesday reported weaker-than-expected underlying sales growth as weak demand from the electronics industry in Asia hit its Tesa adhesives business.

Beiersdorf, which makes industrial adhesives used in cars, smartphones and tablet computers, reported organic sales growth of 2.4 percent for the three months to March 31, below the 3.3 percent expected by analysts polled by Reuters.

Underlying sales were down 3.2 percent, compared with expectations for a 1.6 percent rise. Beiersdorf nonetheless affirmed its guidance for full-year growth of 3-4 percent.

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Reported sales fell 1.9 percent to 1.67 billion euros ($1.92 billion), missing an analysts' consensus forecast for a 1.3 percent rise.

Shares in Beiersdorf were up 1.3 percent to 80.42 euros in early trade, outperforming a 0.2 percent rise in Germany's blue-chip index.

$1 = 0.8710 euros