WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Agricultural products processor Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) Tuesday reported a sharp decline in second-quarter profit, hurt by a write-down related to an Iowa facility and a fall in segment operating profit, despite a rise in sales. Patricia Woertz, chairman and CEO of the company said, 'It was a tough quarter. The operating environment was challenging. Ongoing weakness in global oilseeds margins, lower results in corn and poor international merchandising results hurt our second quarter profits.' In the quarter, the company's profit plunged to $80 million or $0.12 per share from $732 million or $1.14 per share reported a year ago. Excluding LIFO charge of $0.06 per share and asset impairment costs of $0.33 per share, adjusted earnings per share fell to $0.51 from $1.20 in the same quarter last year. On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.76 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Net sales and other operating income grew to $23.31 billion from $20.93 billion in the prior-year quarter, exceeding analysts' estimate of $22.82 billion. Segment operating profit fell to $309 million from $1.36 billion in the prior year. Recent-quarter operating profit includes $339 million in impairment charges. Excluding charges, segment operating profit was $648 million. Total Oilseeds Processing operating profit declined to $253 million from $325 million last year. Corn Processing posted an operating loss of $133 million, compared to an operating profit of $399 million a year ago. Bioproducts results in the quarter was a loss of $206 million, including the $339 million PHA impairment charges and the absence of ownership gains from last year. Agricultural Services operating profit dropped to $158 million from $426 million in the preceding year. Total processing volumes improved to 16.34 million metric tons from 15.56 million metric tons in the year-ago quarter. 'We remain optimistic about the long-term fundamentals of our business and the growing earnings power of our company,' Woertz added. ADM closed Monday's regular trading at $29.71 on the NYSE. In the pre-market activity, the shares are down 4.58 percent.
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