Minerva expects to grow between 15% and 20% this year

Minerva Foods estimates that its gross revenues will grow between 15% and 20% in 2013 compared to last year and will reach $ 5.4 billion to $ of 5.6 billion. In 2012, were $ 4.7 billion, and in the first half of this year the value reached r $ 2.6 billion. As the company's Chairman, Fernando Galletti de Queiroz, the increment is pulled by both the slaughtering of cattle growth as sales of meat produced by third parties.
The scenario mapped out for sales is based on demand, which remains heated, especially abroad. Hence why oxen prices are firm, evaluates Fabiano Tito Rosa, market research manager of Minerva, and not on account of a possible cooling of the current cycle of positive supply for refrigerators, with greater supply of animals ready for slaughter.
"If I'm in a year of high offer, why prices found support? Because the demand is very strong. Is not a problem of supply. We had record production, "said the analyst at an event promoted yesterday by the company in Barretos, São Paulo interior.
The expectation is that the slaughter of cattle in Brazil to grow 11% this year. "It will be the record of slaughterings in the country", he predicted. The oxen represents about 80% of the production costs of a refrigerator. Minerva Foods Limited is the third largest processor of beef from Brazil, behind JBS and Marfrig.
And, if external demand for Brazilian beef is already heated, the suspension of sales of the growth promoter Zilmax by Merck in the United States, announced on Friday, could raise it even more, since American competitiveness tends to decrease.
"The United States faces a serious competitiveness problem. They are highly reliant on grains. Additionally, are experiencing problems with the issue of beta-agonists [group that includes the Zilmax], "said Rosa.
The week before, Tyson Foods, which accounts for 26% of the slaughterings of cattle in the u.s., reported that will not buy more cattle treated with the growth promoter under the claim that the animals that used the product had difficulty of locomotion. Beta-agonists are widely used in the United States.
Asked about the use of beta-agonists in Brazil, where sales are suspended, pink reaffirmed the reverse position of refrigerators until the country has a system of reliable segregation.
If collaborates to further stimulate exports, the high-dollar, by contrast, makes the task of the company to reduce its leverage ratio (ratio of net debt and Ebitda). At the end of the second quarter, this index was 3.31 times. The Chief Financial Officer of Minerva Foods, Edson Ticle, asserts that the company could achieve the goal before 2015 was not the exchange rate, which raises the company's debt in Brazilian Reals.