000829 Cargill Income Triples; Beef Strong

Minneapolis, MN - Agribusiness giant Cargill Inc., the largest privately held company in the United States, said its operating earnings in fiscal 2000 tripled over the previous year's depressed results, boosted by strength in its financial and beef processing businesses.

Operating earnings for fiscal 2000, ended May 31, before charges were $659 million, up 200% from $220 million reported in the previous year. The charges in 2000 included a write-down of assets in a number of businesses and a small loss from discontinued operations.

The company said it had a $6 million net loss in the fourth quarter due to asset write-downs taken in that period.

Cargill said its global capital markets and value investing groups boosted the financial businesses, while beef processing benefited from the strong U.S. economy and consumers' renewed enthusiasm for beef.

Other top-performing sectors were energy, poultry, animal nutrition, cattle feeding, cocoa and sugar.

Earnings in the company's grain trading and processing businesses remained depressed despite a slowly recovering Asian economy, Cargill Chief Executive Officer Warren Staley said in a prepared statement.

“Agriculture needs a healthy dose of demand growth, and that tonic must come from developing parts of the world where growing population and income will add up to more demand for more and better food,” Staley said. “As economies in Asia regain momentum, it's critical that efforts to improve access to their markets are redoubled.”

Net earnings were $480 million for the fiscal year compared with $597 million a year ago. Net income in 1999 included a one-time gain from the sale of the company's international seed business.

Revenues in fiscal 2000 were $48 billion, up 4% from the previous year. Cash flow from continuing operations was $1.7 billion.

Progress made toward restructuring the organization aided the financial results, the company said.

“While that entails some short-term pain, we believe that at 135 years old Cargill is just getting its second wind,” Staley said.

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