Acquisitions said to play critical role in Cargill's strong animal nutrition performance in Q4
The company posted net earnings of $424 million in its Q4 for 2014 – which represented a 12% drop on the $483m accrued in that quarter a year ago. It said revenues for the quarter rose 2% to $36.2bn.
For the full fiscal year Cargill posted earnings of $1.87bm, down 19% from the $2.31bn recorded for 2013 full year results. Full year revenues, it added, declined 1% to $134.9 bn.
Results in animal nutrition were up for the full year, reflecting the positive impact of recent years’ acquisitions and a product and service mix that met the diverse needs of customers, said the Minneapolis headquartered company.
“Though we look back on a year in which overall earnings fell short of expectations, we realized stronger operating results in several businesses including a turnaround in our global beef operations. We also made good progress on moves designed to sharpen efficiency and support profitable growth in fiscal 2015 and beyond,” said CEO, David MacLennan.
Performance in animal protein was led by the beef business, which was boosted by more efficient operations, good cattle feeding results in North America and brisk exports of Australian beef.
US pork operations rose on improved live production and processing efficiency, and steady demand, said Cargill, while poultry operations in Central America, Europe and Thailand also proved robust.
Its grain processing results were slightly below last year’s fourth quarter, and full-year earnings for the segment “decreased moderately from fiscal 2013, reflecting in part the impact of China’s rejection of certain US corn shipments, as reported in the third quarter.”
