Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG) reported Q1 EPS of ($0.12), $1.54 worse than the analyst estimate of $1.42. Revenue for the quarter came in at $13.46 billion versus the consensus estimate of $15.13 billion.

Outlook

Drew Burke, Chief Financial Officer, stated, "We remain confident about the full year. Demand for our products in most regions has been strong, and we expect these conditions to persist throughout the year. In the near term, our South American operations, which are in the early parts of harvest, will be the primary driver of results. With the recent pick-up in pace of farmer selling and strong export demand for soybean meal, crush margins and utilizations in South America should remain strong through September when export demand begins to shift back to North America. In China, the second quarter will remain challenging as the industry works through the excess supply of soybeans; however, we expect margins in the second half of the year to improve significantly as supply and demand come into balance. In the Northern Hemisphere we are entering the slow season; however, forward crush margins for soy and soft seeds look good.

"In sugar & bioenergy, we continue to expect full-year segment results to be about breakeven and are managing the business to be free cash flow neutral. Despite dry weather during the first quarter, we expect to have sufficient cane to crush close to capacity. Due to the seasonality of the Brazilian sugarcane harvest, we expect results in this segment to be weighted toward the second half of the year.

"In food & ingredients, similar to last year, we expect each quarter to improve sequentially as we move into seasonally stronger periods of the year and our performance improvement programs gain traction by improving our cost base through higher productivity, cost reduction and working capital management. The integration of our Altex wheat mills is going well, and we expect to extract more value from our Mexico milling operations as the year progresses."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Bunge Ltd. (BG) click here.