São Paulo – The Brazilian meat producer JBS expanded its earnings from the Middle East and Africa markets in this year’s Q1 over the same period of last year, according to a balance sheet released this Wednesday’s (13th) night by the company.
According to JBS’s balance report, the company exported US$ 3.547 billion in this year’s Q1, an increase of 13% over the same period in 2014. From the total volume exported, 13.4% went to Middle East and Africa countries, which amounted to US$ 475.33 million.
In the same period of 2014, sales to the Middle East and Africa amounted to 14.7%, but total exports stood at US$ 3.145 billion. Thus, shipments to the Middle East and Africa in Q1 2014 reached US$ 462.38 million, which means that in Q1 2015 there was an increase of 2.8%.
The Middle East and Africa regions together are the second largest market in revenues from exported products, trailing only South America and ahead of China and Hong Kong.
The company’s general revenue reached R$ 33.8 billion (US$ 11.2 billion) in Q1, 28% higher than in the same period of last year. The net profit jumped from R$ 70 million (US$ 23.3 million) to R$ 1.394 billion (US$ 464.1 million).
In Q1 2015, the company concluded the buy-out of two companies, one in Australia and another in Brazil, which prevented its debt to be reduced. The debt dropped only from US$ 10.464 billion to US$ 10.356 billion.
JBS’s stocks remained stable on the trading floor at the end of Thursday (14th) at R$ 16.60 (US$ 5.53) in the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa).
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
