April 26 (Reuters) - Signify, the world's biggest maker of lights, reported on Friday a first-quarter adjusted core profit that missed expectations, dented by soft demand in China.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITA) fell 18.3% to 122 million euros ($130.78 million), falling short of the 131 million euros expected on average by analysts in a company-compiled consensus.

"In the first quarter, we saw improving dynamics in our U.S. Professional, OEM and Consumer businesses, while the market in China remained soft and the European Professional business was substantially below our expectation," CEO Eric Rondolat said in a statement.

Nominal sales in the quarter fell 12.5% to 1.47 billion euros, the group said, while reaffirming its 2024 outlook.

The company expects an adjusted EBITA margin improvement of up to 50 basis points for 2024.

($1 = 0.9328 euros) (Reporting by Olivier Sorgho; Editing by Jamie Freed and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)