CJ CheilJedang reports an expectation-beating third quarter

CJ CheilJedang reported 211 billion won ($180 million) in consolidated third quarter net profit on Monday, up 11.7 percent on year.

The company behind Bibigo foods announced in a preliminary report on Monday 6.85 trillion won in consolidated sales in the July-September period, beating the 6.6 trillion-won market consensus. Sales were up 8.1 percent on year. The company’s operating profit was 433.16 billion won, up 7.7 percent on year, beating the market estimate of 423 billion won.

CJ CheilJedang reported 2.58 trillion won in sales from its food business, up 7.9 percent on year. Operating profit from food was 186 billion won, up 5.8 percent on year.

The company said sales of home meal replacements like Hetbahn microwavable rice helped in the domestic market.

Dumplings helped sales overseas, especially in the United States, Japan and China.

The company said sales of processed food online jumped 33 percent on year, while sales at convenience stores rose 15 percent.

Bio business operating profit jumped 60.9 percent on year to 127 billion won on sales that increased 35.4 percent during the same period to 1.04 trillion won.

The company said it is the first time its bio business sales broke 1 trillion won. It said quickly responding to the external environment based on its ability to supply various products from production facilities around the world helped increase earnings in the bio sector.

CJ CheilJedang’s Feed&Care for pets, a subsidiary of CJ CheilJedang, reported 601 billion won in sales, up 2.2 percent on year.

Operating profit was down 84.5 percent to 8.8 billion won. The company said more expensive grains affected the earnings.

CJ Logistics, 40.2 percent owned by CJ CheilJedang, reported 39.5 billion won in net profit, down 16.8 percent on year. Sales inched up 2.6 percent to 2.85 trillion won.

CJ CheilJedang said it agreed to acquire 76 percent of the Netherlands-based bio technology firm Batavia Biosciences for 268 billion won, marking its entrance into the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business.

Batavia Biosciences, founded in 2010, is known to have experience in virus, viral vector and microbial vaccines.

CJ CheilJedang plans to start cell and gene therapy CDMO business, which it expects to grow 25 percent annually.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]