DUBAI, April 26 (Reuters) - Dubai's Emaar Malls , a unit of Emaar Properties , reported a 22 percent rise in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday as its rental income grew.

Emaar Malls made a net profit of 529 million dirhams ($144.03 million) in the three months to March 31, up from 433 million dirhams in the same period a year earlier, it said in a statement.

EFG Hermes forecast Emaar Malls would make a quarterly net profit of 451.9 million dirhams.

Emaar Malls' quarterly rental income was 833 million dirhams, up 14 percent year-on-year.

Its malls achieved 96 percent occupancy and attracted about 31 million visitors in the first three months of 2016, which were both similar levels to a year earlier, the company said without elaborating.

Parent firm Emaar Properties owns about 85 percent of Emaar Malls, having floated the remainder in 2014. At the time, the 5.8 billion dirham share sale was the Gulf's largest since 2008.

($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham)

(Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Archana Narayanan) ((matt.smith1@thomsonreuters.com; 00971506354039; Reuters Messaging: matt.smith1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: EMAAR MALLS RESULTS/Q1