By Karl Plume
(Reuters) -U.S. grain trader and processor Bunge Global reported a smaller-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit on Wednesday on improved oilseed processing margins and better results from its grains and oils merchandising business.
The earnings beat came as Bunge secured final regulatory approvals for its long-delayed deal to acquire grain handler Viterra, a transaction that officially closed at the start of the third quarter on July 2. It also completed the sale of its U.S. corn
milling business.
Bunge maintained its 2025 earnings guidance of $7.75 per share, which would be its lowest in six years, but said it would update it to include the Viterra merger prior to reporting third-quarter results.
Its shares were up 1.2% in pre-market trading.
Bunge and agribusiness peers including Archer-Daniels-Midland and Cargill have seen profits erode in recent quarters due to ample global crop supplies and thinning margins.
Trade tensions stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs further disrupted trade flows while biofuel policy uncertainty has dented demand for green energy feedstocks like corn and soybean oil.
Bunge posted an adjusted profit of $1.31 per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.14, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Its core agribusiness segment, the largest by revenue and volume, saw adjusted profit fall 22% while net sales fell 5.1% to $9.17 billion in the reported quarter from a year earlier.
Weak soybean prices amid bumper crops in Brazil and the United States, the top two producers and exporters, helped to expand oilseed processing margins in the second quarter, boosting Bunge's full-year outlook for the agribusiness unit.
But the company lowered its outlook for its refined and specialty oils segment after adjusted second-quarter profit dropped nearly 40%.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
