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December 18, 2007 |
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COSAN SA: Earns US$17 Million in Fiscal Year 2008 Second Quarter Cosan SA said in a statement that its net profits decreased 67% to US$17.7 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008, compared to US$54 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2007. Business News Americas relates that Cosan's 2008 fiscal year is from May 2007 to April 2008. Its second quarter 2008 ended on October 2007. Cosan's chief financial officer Paulo Diniz said in a Web cast, "A decrease in sugar and ethanol volumes sold, lower ethanol prices and the exchange rate were the three key reasons for the [profit] reduction in the second quarter of FY08 [fiscal year 2008]." BNamericas notes that Cosan's Ebitda decreased to US$42 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008, compared to US$106 million in the same period in the fiscal year 2007. The firm's net operating revenue dropped to US$328 million, from US$463 million as sugar and ethanol prices declined. Sugar sales dropped to 59% of Cosan's total sales in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008, compared 63% in the year-ago period. Mr. Diniz told BNamericas that Cosan's results in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 "were slightly better than expected." The firm is "building stocks for the ethanol intercrop period" -- December 2007 to April 2008. "We expect domestic ethanol prices to increase as much as 20% during the intercrop period, or maybe even more, as the ethanol market is going through sustained growth in Brazil," Mr. Diniz commented to BNamericas. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Cosan S.A. Industria e Comercio, is the third largest sugar producer in the world. In 2004/2005 it crushed more than 26 million tons of sugar cane in fourteen mills located in the Central South region of Brazil, with sugar sales of 2.3 million tons and ethanol sales of 825 million liters. * * * As of February 2007, Cosan carries Moody's Ba2 global local currency and foreign currency ratings and Standard and Poor's BB corporate credit rating. |
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