SHANGHAI, Nov 18 (Reuters) - China's largest instant noodle maker Tingyi Holding Corp said its third-quarter net profit rose 18.4 percent to $185.9 million, beating forecasts, helped by strong sales at its beverage unit during a record-hot summer.

Hong Kong-listed Tingyi owns the Master Kong noodle brand and is a partner of PepsiCo Inc in China.

CIMB Research analyst Yang Lei had forecast a profit of $162.7 million. The company's third-quarter profit last year was $157 million.

Tingyi, which competes with smaller rival Uni-President China Holdings Ltd and Want Want China Holdings Ltd said net profit for the first nine months of the year was $382.5 million, down from $443.7 million for the same period a year ago.

Shares of Tingyi are up 3.25 percent so far this year, slightly lagging a 3.86 percent gain for the wider benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Tingyi, which has a market value of $15.7 billion, accounts for just under half of China's noodle market by sales volume. Chinese diners consume 44 billion packets of noodles each year, while data from Euromonitor values the sector at 98.5 billion yuan ($16.17 billion) this year.