Bunge Ltd (NYSE:BG) reported better than expected results for the fourth quarter on Wednesday...fueled by Food & Ingredients and Sugar & Bioenergy sector. The company expects to deliver strong earnings growth in 2017 too.

Written by R. Chandrasekaran (StockMarketDaily.co)

Bunge said that it delivered GAAP earnings of $1.83 a share for the fourth quarter representing nearly 40% year-over-year growth. On an adjusted basis, its earnings advanced 14.09% to $1.70 a share and topped the Street estimates by 13 cents.

The company’s top line grew 8.6% to $12.06 billion from $11.105 billion and came in above the analysts’ predictions of $11.41 billion. While revenue from Agribusiness increased to $8.34 billion from $7.89 billion, revenue from Edible Oil Products grew to $1.901 billion from $1.724 billion in the same period last year. Similarly, other segments like Sugar & Bioenergy recorded 30.6% growth to $1.275 billion.

Commenting on the results, Bunge’s CEO, Soren Schroder, said:

“We returned $457 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, and capex of $784 million was below our $850 million guidance and is tracking approximately $275 million below our 2014-2017 target, reflecting disciplined capital allocation.  We expanded our value added Food & Ingredients’ capabilities with bolt-on M&A in Europe and strengthened our winning Agribusiness footprint through joint ventures in Brazil, Vietnam and Canada.”

Moving ahead, the company expects EBIT to hit $895 million to $1.05 billion fueled by big crops in South America. Bunge sees the agribusiness to commence slowly and progress steadily driven by volumes and margins in South America.