Monsanto posts profit on higher sales of corn, soybean seeds

REUTERS - U.S. seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto Co, which is being acquired by Germany's Bayer AG, reported a quarterly profit, compared with a year-ago loss, helped by sales of corn and soybean seeds.

The world's largest seed supplier's shares were up about 1 percent at $120.65 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Monsanto said sales of corn seeds and traits, its biggest segment by revenue, rose nearly 16 percent helped by higher prices in Brazil and Argentina.

Soybean seeds sales increased 22 percent, while net sales for the company rose 4.8 percent to $2.68 billion.

Net income attributable to Monsanto was $20 million, or 5 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Aug. 31, compared with a loss of $191 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier.

Separately, a unit of Brazil's competition regulator Cade said the $66 billion takeover of Monsanto by Bayer could be detrimental to competition.

(Reporting by Karan Nagarkatti in Bengaluru and Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Shounak Dasgupta)