October 29, 2007

 

Brazil's Sadia to invest BRL200 Million in global units

 

 

Brazilian food company Sadia SA (SDA) said Friday (October 26) that it will continue its international investments with a planned 200 million Brazilian reals (US$112.9 million) going into two new factories over the next two years.

 

The two factories will start operations in 2008 and 2009, respectively, a Sadia press officer said, without giving details about the location or activities of the units.

 

Sadia invested US$78 million in a chicken-meat processing plant in Kaliningrad, Russia, to supply meat and chicken based products to McDonald's (MCD).

 

The plant will be inaugurated later next month, a Sadia press official said Friday (October 26).

 

Sadia, Brazil's leading chicken-meat company, reported third-quarter net profit of BRL188 million on Thursday, up sharply from BRL69.1 million in the year-ago period.

 

Sadia's net operating revenue for the third quarter was BRL2.15 billion, up from BRL1.79 billion a year earlier.

 

"The third-quarter results were good and, as expected, showed a strong recovery from the deep low of 2006. Exports improved substantially, and prices recovered across the board, resulting in solid growth and margin recovery. We believe results will be well received by the market," Credit Suisse said in a research report.

 

On Thursday, the company's ADR in New York closed at US$65.24 and rose to US$66.35 on Friday.

 

Brazil is the world's leading chicken and beef exporter.

 

The company also said it would invest BRL100 million in two new meat- packing facilities in Brazil in 2009, the local Estado newswire reported Friday.