PepsiCo sales fall 3 pct on strong dollar, weakness in LatAm

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - PepsiCo Inc's quarterly sales fell 3 percent, the sixth straight quarter of decline, hurt by a strong dollar and weakness in some markets including Latin America and Europe.

Pepsi said on Monday that sales in Latin America fell 26.3 percent to $1.04 billion in the first quarter, partly due to a strong dollar and the exclusion of its Venezuelan business. The region accounted for about 9 percent of PepsiCo's total revenue.

The strength in the dollar eroded the value of PepsiCo's sales also in other markets outside the United States, hurting total sales by 4.5 percentage points.

The average value of the dollar rose 2.6 percent against a basket of currencies in the first quarter.

Sales in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa declined 9.1 percent to about $1.36 billion.

The company's organic revenue, however, rose 3.5 percent in the quarter ended March 19.

Shares of PepsiCo, which maintained its forecast of 4 percent growth in 2016 organic revenue, were unchanged at $103.77 in premarket trading on Monday.

The net income attributable to PepsiCo fell nearly 24 percent to $931 million, or 64 cents per share, including an impairment charge of $373 million related to its interest in Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding Co Ltd.

Net revenue fell to $11.86 billion from $12.22 billion.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)