Mondelez International Inc., which has come under activist pressure amid consolidation in the U.S. food industry, posted third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld trims expenses.
Profit was 42 cents a share, excluding some items, the Deerfield, Illinois-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts estimated 41 cents, on average. And while sales fell 18 percent to $6.85 billion, partly due to the sale of its coffee business, that topped analysts’ $6.81 billion projection.
Rosenfeld been pursuing $3 billion in cost cuts and shifting production overseas to protect the company from a wave of consolidation in the food industry.
She’s also trying to manage through the company’s second tangle with an activist investor in the past two years after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management disclosed a $5.6 billion stake in the snacks giant in August. The maker of Oreos and Wheat Thins previously beat back an activist push from Nelson Peltz by adding the billionaire to its board.
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
