2025-08-15 00:27

SAO PAULO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has lifted a ban on poultry imports from Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, where an outbreak of bird flu was reported on a commercial poultry farm in May, according to an Agriculture Ministry memo issued on Thursday and seen by Reuters. Chile, which had also imposed trade restrictions after the outbreak, has also agreed to resume buying Brazilian poultry products produced after August 9, according to a separate document sent from Chile to Brazilian authorities. Sign up here. Chile will be open to importing Brazilian fertile eggs, one-day chicks, fresh chicken and processed products, according to the document, which was issued on Thursday following a visit by Chilean officials to Brazil last week. The document also says that Chilean authorities recognize Rio Grande do Sul state as free of Newcastle disease, which is a highly contagious and viral disease affecting birds, like avian flu. Earlier in the day, executives at Brazilian food processor BRF (BRFS3.SA) , opens new tab welcomed the end of Saudi Arabia's ban and the potential easing of Chile's trade restrictions at a press conference. BRF on Thursday reported strong second-quarter results, but trade bans did affect the company's poultry exports and the quarterly results, managers said. Brazilian companies had faced a number of regional and countrywide trade bans after the country's first-ever bird flu outbreak on a commercial farm, which were gradually lifted. Large food importers like China have not resumed buying Brazilian poultry. (This story has been refiled to fix headline to say 'memos' in the plural) https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/saudi-arabia-chile-resume-poultry-imports-brazil-memos-say-2025-08-15/

2025-08-15 00:06

Revenues, net profit climb Shares jump after hours Nubank targets more unsecured loans SAO PAULO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Nu Holdings (NU.N) , opens new tab, which runs Brazilian digital lender Nubank, posted on Thursday a 42% increase in its net profit from a year earlier on a foreign exchange-neutral basis, causing its shares to jump more than 8% in after-hours trading. The firm, which has nearly 123 million clients across Brazil - its main market - Colombia and Mexico, posted a $637 million second-quarter net profit for the April to June period. Revenue stood at $3.7 billion, up 40% year-on-year. Sign up here. Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Lago told Reuters the profit increase was driven by operational leverage and revenue growth, but said the factors behind that growth are starting to change. "If in the last three to five years a major part of our growth came from adding new customers, in the next three to five years a major part of our revenue growth in Brazil will come from deepening the relationship with these customers," Lago said. Nubank's annualized return on equity, a gauge of profitability, came in at 28%, in line with the reported year-ago figure. Nubank posted a "strong quarter," Citi analysts wrote, noting that net profit came in above expectations while net interest margin showed a recovery. Shares in Nubank were up 8.3% in extended trade in New York. The lender's total loan book grew 8% from the first quarter to $27.3 billion, as personal loans expanded within Nubank's overall portfolio, which is largely made up of outstanding credit card debt. Meanwhile, the early default ratio stood at 4.4%, falling 0.3 percentage points from the first quarter. The over-90 day ratio reached 6.6%, up 0.1 percentage point in the same period, with Nubank saying it reflected both a rise in short-term delinquencies in the first quarter and a seasonal pattern. "We will continue to grow unsecured lending originations fairly strongly throughout the remainder of 2025 and 2026 as long as it continues to see the asset quality numbers that we are seeing in our book," Lago said in a call with analysts. "Until today... everything seems to be super on track," he added. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/brazilian-digital-lender-nubank-posts-42-profit-boost-shares-jump-2025-08-14/

2025-08-14 23:06

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Chilean industrial conglomerate Empresas Copec (COPEC.SN) , opens new tab on Thursday posted an 21% drop in second-quarter profit although revenue surpassed expectations, as the forestry giant faces falling pulp prices and impacts from the U.S.-China trade war. Net profit for the three months ended June hit $228 million - in line with forecasts of analysts polled by LSEG - from revenue that edged down 1% to $7.18 billion. Sign up here. However, revenue for Copec, which owns a large forestry business as well as fuel distribution, mining and fishing operations, landed ahead of analysts' $6.84 billion estimate. Copec attributed the decline in sales largely to lower prices for pulp - a raw material used in a range of products such as paper, packaging and some textiles - though it partially offset this by selling off larger volumes. Copec said China faced an oversupply of pulp even though domestic consumption and demand remained strong, while in Europe, an oversupply had combined with a lower use of "almost all grades of paper", causing some paper mills to shut down. "The dissolving pulp market has been affected by the trade war between the United States, China, and other Asian textile-producing countries," it added. Copec said its forestry subsidiary Arauco sold nearly 8% more pulp compared to the same quarter last year, but prices were down more than 12%. Arauco contributes the bulk of earnings for Copec, which last year counted over 9,360 square km (3,614 square miles) of land planted mainly with eucalyptus and pine forests across Brazil and South America's Southern Cone - an area larger than the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Washington has slapped a 50% tariff on goods from Brazil, but excluded some major exports, including various types of wood pulp, sawn wood and paper products. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/forestry-giant-copecs-profit-dips-revenue-beats-forecasts-2025-08-14/

2025-08-14 22:46

SAO PAULO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian food processor BRF (BRFS3.SA) , opens new tab, the world's largest chicken exporter, said on Thursday it earned 735 million reais ($136 million) in the second quarter despite disruptions from a bird flu outbreak in May that triggered trade bans. The company, which also processes pork and prepared food products, said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of operating income known as EBITDA, was 2.5 billion reais in the period, in line with the average of analysts' forecasts. Sign up here. Sales totaled 15.36 billion reais, a 2.9% annual rise, BRF said. Citing official trade data, BRF executives said the bird flu outbreak caused Brazilian poultry exports to fall 15% in the quarter while the company's own poultry exports dropped 5%, indicating it was able to weather the storm. At a press conference, executives noted BRF redirected some chicken products to the domestic market, or found alternative destinations for certain cuts after multiple bird flu-related trade embargoes. China, a key export destination, remains closed for Brazilian poultry products after the outbreak, which the government has controlled. However, Saudi Arabia will resume buying from Brazil, BRF executives told reporters, citing official government communications. Sales volume grew about 6% in BRF's home market, driven by processed food, which scored a record high for any second quarter for the company. BRF's Brazil EBITDA reached 1.3 billion reais and margins were a healthy 16.4%, BRF said. In international markets, BRF said it was able to maintain "competitive pricing levels." The company recorded adjusted EBITDA of 1.2 billion reais for the business and a margin of 17.3%. In the second quarter, BRF said it obtained 11 new export authorizations, highlighting key markets such as Argentina and Canada. BRF said the company had the best half-year in history, referring to results between January and June, with EBITDA of 5.3 billion reais and net profit of 1.9 billion reais in the period. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-brf-dodges-bird-flu-trade-disruptions-posts-q2-gains-2025-08-14/

2025-08-14 22:33

Talks at risk of ending with no deal Race for compromise go into overtime Oil producing nations oppose virgin plastics curbs GENEVA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Talks to create the world's first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution went into overtime on Thursday, with talks adjourned to the following day. Countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs on what was meant to be the final day of negotiations at the United Nations in Geneva. Sign up here. But with just 30 minutes left in the scheduled meeting, the chair of the talks of the International Negotiating Committee (INC), Luis Vayas Valdivieso, told delegates the negotiations would run into Friday. The INC is a group established by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in 2022 with the mandate to develop a legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution. Late Thursday night, countries had been awaiting a new text that could be the basis for further negotiations after delegations who want an ambitious plastics treaty threw out the one proposed on Wednesday. States pushing for a comprehensive treaty, including Panama, Kenya, Britain and the European Union, shared frustration that key articles on the full life cycle of plastic pollution - from the production of polymers to the disposal of waste - as well as the harm to health had been removed entirely from the text. Oil-producing nations are against curbs on the production of virgin plastics derived from petroleum, coal, and gas, while others want it to be limited and to have stricter controls over plastic products and hazardous chemicals. "You cannot reconcile these two positions, and so I think that the chair will keep on trying. I don't know if he can, and if he can't, it will be time to seriously think about how to move forward," David Azoulay, the managing attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law's Geneva Office, told Reuters. EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall said a "weak, static agreement serves no one". "A treaty that covers the full life cycle of plastics and can evolve with science is a vital step ... The next few hours will show whether we can rise to the moment," she said in a statement. Panama described Wednesday's draft text as "repulsive" and called for a complete rewrite. Saudi Arabia, which is resisting major curbs, said nothing could be agreed until the treaty's scope was clearly defined. More than 1,000 delegates have gathered in Geneva for the sixth round of talks, after a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in South Korea late last year ended without a deal. Advocacy groups held a banner and chanted against a "weak treaty" on Thursday as they waited for delegates to arrive in the U.N. plenary hall in Geneva for further discussions. The OECD warns that without intervention, plastic production will triple by 2060, further choking oceans, harming health, and exacerbating climate change. COMPROMISE Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, co-chair of the High Ambition Countries group, told Reuters that all parties need to compromise. "We are willing to discuss all articles, three, six, for example, to be able to create the package that can be good enough for everyone," he said, pointing to potential openness to re-discussing restrictions on chemicals and production. Ross Eisenberg, president of America's Plastic Makers, which is part of the American Chemistry Council, said he was optimistic. "We think this can be really good for our industry, society, and for the environment," he told Reuters. The council, which supports a deal without limits on plastic production, warned that the U.S. might not ratify a treaty containing provisions to ban chemicals or restrict plastic production. However, Colombian lawmaker Juan Carlos Lozada urged that no deal would be better than a watered-down deal. Some 300 businesses, including Unilever (ULVR.L) , opens new tab, have pressed for an ambitious treaty that harmonises rules globally. "If we don't get that degree of harmonisation, we risk further fragmentation ... and higher costs," Ed Shepherd, senior global sustainability manager at Unilever, told Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/plastic-pollution-talks-go-into-overtime-countries-push-late-breakthrough-2025-08-14/

2025-08-14 22:08

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Expand Energy (EXE.O) , opens new tab said on Thursday Mohit Singh, its chief financial officer since 2021, has left the natural gas producer, effective August 13. Singh departed due to a termination without cause and will pursue other interests, the company said. Sign up here. Expand Energy and Singh did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Insider Brittany Raiford has been appointed as interim CFO, the company said. Last month, the natural gas producer reported a second-quarter profit, compared with a year-earlier loss, as it benefited from higher output and stronger commodity prices. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/expand-energy-ousts-cfo-mohit-singh-2025-08-14/