Monsanto profit beats estimates on soybean seed demand

(Reuters) - U.S. seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto Co, which is being bought by Germany's Bayer AG, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher sales in its soybean business.

Sales of soybean seed and traits, the company's second-biggest business by revenue, jumped 29.3 percent to $896 million in the third quarter ended May 31, Monsanto said on Wednesday.

However, sales of corn seed and traits, the company's biggest revenue generator, fell 6.3 percent to $1.49 billion.

Monsanto agreed in September to a $66 billion buyout offer from Bayer, that, if approved by regulators, would create a company commanding more than a quarter of the world market for seeds and pesticides.

Monsanto said on Wednesday it was working toward the completion of the merger by the end of the calendar year.

Bayer said last month it would sell its LibertyLink-branded seeds businesses, a key part of the asset sales required to satisfy competition authorities looking at the Monsanto deal.

Net income attributable to Monsanto rose to $843 million, or $1.90 per share, in the third quarter, from $717 million, or $1.63 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, Monsanto earned $1.93 per share, handily beating the analysts' average estimate of $1.76, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Monsanto's shares were marginally up at $118 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)