Meatpacker JBS's plunging profit beats forecasts

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil's JBS SA, the world's largest meat producer, on Thursday said quarterly profit plunged 47.1%, 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 ($745.35 million), while analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected it to land at 3.75 billion reais.

Net revenue grew 6.8% to 98.9 billion reais, mainly driven by 22.3% sales growth at its brand Seara and its Australian unit, that reported growth of 19.5%.

JBS Beef North America, usually the firm's cash cow, had revenue of 29.15 billion reais, down 4.8% 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," said JBS chief executive Gilberto Tomazoni.

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% decline from a year ago.

The unit's operational profitability, measured by its EBITDA margin, fell 16.7 percentage points to 8.7%.

($1 = 5.3800 reais)

(Reporting by Nayara Figueiredo; Writing by Peter Frontini; Editing by David Gregorio)