- Bunge 's (NYSE:BG) -5.6% premarket, as its wide Q4 earnings miss and decline in revenues will intensify questions over the future of the 200-year-old ag trading house as an independent company.
- BG, the subject of a takeover offer from Archer Daniels Midland, reported an unadjusted Q4 net loss of $69M, or $0.48/share, compared with a profit of $262M, or $1.82/share, a year earlier; results include a $66M charge due to tax law changes in the U.S. and Argentina.
- "We expect a soft first quarter with improving conditions throughout the remainder of the year," CEO Soren Schroder says.
- Q4 sales in the agribusiness segment, BG's largest revenue generator, fell 3.5% Y/Y to $7.9B even as volumes rose, and the company says margins in the business "remained weak" and it is "not expecting a quick turnaround."
- Q4 net sales from edible oil products rose 13% to $2.1B, helped by reduced costs and higher margins in North America and its acquisitions in Europe.
- BG says Q4 net sales from sugar and bioenergy fell 14% to $1B, with sugarcane milling results "significantly" below expectations due to rain during the quarter, and It expects results in the segment for H1 2018 to be "seasonally weak."
- BG also says it is in the process of exiting global sugar trading.
- Now read: The Chain: Potential ADM Takeover Of Bunge Carries Uncertain Supply Chain Impacts
Original article