Recasts throughout, adds share move in paragraph 2

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Fibre cement maker James Hardie JHX.AX on Tuesday raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA and net sales forecast for its siding and trim segment, citing improving market conditions.

The ASX-listed shares of the company rose as much as 8.7% to A$27.630, hitting its highest level since November 5.

The upgrade comes amid the integration U.S. building products group AZEK, for which the firm had to shell out $8.8 billion, earlier this year.

"The AZEK business is performing well and is surpassing our expectations," Aaron Erter, CEO of James Hardie said.

The acquisition sparked criticism among Australian investors as James Hardie received a waiver from the Australian Securities Exchange from holding a shareholder vote on the deal.

The company also appointed AZEK's former finance chief Ryan Lada as its CFO, succeeding Rachel Wilson effective immediately, and named Nigel Stein as chair of its board.

In October, shareholders also voted against the re-election of chairwoman Anne Lloyd as a director.

For the fiscal year ending in March 2026, the company now expects its adjusted operating earnings between $1.20 to $1.25 billion from its earlier forecast of between $1.05 billion and $1.15 billion.

Its net sales for siding and trim business is expected to be between $2.925 billion to $2.995 billion, from its earlier forecast of $2.675 billion to $2.850 billion.

"For Siding & Trim, we've seen more stable market conditions and normalized inventory levels than we had embedded in our prior outlook," the company said.

For the second quarter, the company reported adjusted net income of $154 million for the three months ended September 30, compared with $157 million last year, beating the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $144.2 million.

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee and Adwitiya Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

((Adwitiya.Srivastava@thomsonreuters.com;))