By Karl Plume and Pooja Menon
(Reuters) -Bunge Global topped Wall Street estimates for third-quarter adjusted profit on Wednesday with the closing of its acquisition of Viterra in July boosting volumes as oilseed processing margins improved, sending shares up 4.7%.
Strong South American soybean exports lifted results in Bunge’s soybean processing and refining segment after bumper harvests in Argentina and Brazil and as top soy importer China shunned U.S. supplies due to trade tensions. The robust South American program shielded Bunge, a top exporter in the region, from slumping U.S. soybean exports.
By contrast, rival grain trader Archer-Daniels-Midland, whose operations are more concentrated in the United States, cut its 2025 outlook on Tuesday due in part to U.S. trade policy uncertainty.
Agribusinesses have been grappling with ample global crop supplies and slumping margins, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have upended global trade.
Ongoing uncertainty over trade and biofuels policy will be a drag on fourth-quarter earnings as farmers selling crops to Bunge and customers buying its products have been reluctant to book deals beyond the near term, company executives said, pressuring margins for Bunge.
“Policy decisions, including biofuels and trade, remain in flux as we look ahead to 2026,” CEO Greg Heckman said.
Bunge’s adjusted profit of $2.27 per share for the quarter ended September 30 was its lowest third-quarter result since 2019, although it topped analysts’ average estimate of $2.09 per share, according to LSEG data.
The company reaffirmed its previous earnings guidance of between $7.30 and $7.60 per share for 2025, noting headwinds from policy uncertainty but adding that conditions were “developing favorably.”
Bunge’s completed merger with Viterra bolstered its crop marketing and origination capacity and expanded its soy processing business in Argentina.
The combined company’s soy processing and refining segment profit was up 67% from the same quarter a year earlier and softseed processing and refining profit more than doubled as volumes surged.
Profit in Bunge’s grain merchandising and milling division was up 56%, as higher wheat milling and ocean freight earnings more than offset poor grain merchandising results.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)
