Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer, on Thursday said quarterly profit plunged 47.1 per cent, but results still beat analysts’ estimates as higher revenues helped offset shrinking margins in its U.S. beef division.
The company posted a third-quarter net profit of 4.01 billion reais (C$1.001 billion), while analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected it to land at 3.75 billion reais.
Net revenue grew 6.8 per cent to 98.9 billion reais, mainly driven by 22.3 per cent sales growth at its brand Seara and its Australian unit, that reported growth of 19.5 per cent.
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JBS Beef North America, usually the firm’s cash cow, had revenue of 29.15 billion reais, down 4.8 per cent from the previous year.
“As the U.S. beef business margin normalizes, we observe a strengthening of the segment in the Brazilian and Australian markets,” JBS CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said.
The beef unit in North America reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 2.52 billion reais, a sharp 67.5 per cent decline from a year ago.
The unit’s operational profitability, measured by its EBITDA margin, fell 16.7 percentage points to 8.7 per cent.
— Reporting for Reuters by Nayara Figueiredo; writing by Peter Frontini.
