World Grain - September 2014 - 14

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ADM's second-quarter earnings sharply higher
DECATUR, ILLINOIS, U.S. - Archer Daniels Midland Company
(ADM) on Aug. 5 reported second-quarter net earnings of $533
million, or 81¢ per share, which represents an increase of 139%
over earnings of $223 million, or 33¢ per share, for the same period
last year.
"In the second quarter, the ADM team continued to execute very
well and delivered strong results. We capitalized on robust ethanol
demand, a recovery of U.S. grain export volumes and continuing
strong demand for oilseeds products," said ADM Chairman and
CEO Patricia Woertz. "The team also continues to drive improved
returns, with this quarter's ROIC showing a 200-basis-point improvement over last year. Today, the crops in North America and
Europe are developing nicely, so we are preparing for what could be
very large harvests."
The Agricultural Services unit's operating profit was $203 million,
up $122 million from the year-ago period.
Merchandising and handling earnings increased $101 million to
$115 million, amid strong U.S. export volumes, partial recovery of a
loss reserve, and continued improvement in international merchandising results. ADM said transportation results increased $24 million
to $27 million with southbound barge freight utilization driven by
strong U.S. exports, and with good northbound utilization.
Milling and other results were essentially flat as lower milling results were offset by strong performance by the edible bean business.

The corn processing segment's operating profit of $277 million
represented an increase of $69 million from the same period one
year earlier. These numbers exclude positive timing effects of $70
million, or 7¢ per share, versus $15 million, or 1¢ per share, in the
year-ago period.
ADM said its oilseeds segment's operating profit of $328 million
represented an increase of $18 million from the same period one year
earlier. These numbers exclude a negligible charge for cocoa hedge
timing effects, versus a gain of $11 million, or 1¢ per share, in the
year-ago period.
Crushing and origination operating profit declined $22 million to
$163 million. North and South American soybean crushing operations and North American canola crushing operations all saw good
volumes and margins. Those were offset by lower results from South
American origination amid slower farmer selling.
Refining, packaging, biodiesel and other generated a profit of
$119 million for the quarter, up $26 million with good volumes
and margins for refined and packaged oils in South America and
record results for lecithin and protein specialties. Oilseeds results
in Asia for the quarter were down $23 million from the same period last year, principally reflecting lower results from Wilmar
International Limited.
Bioproducts results increased $44 million to $141 million driven
by strong demand and good margins in ethanol.

For more information, see Page 126.

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World Grain - September 2014

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