Souza Cruz's profit rises 9.2% in the quarter, to $ 435,7 million

SAO PAULO-the profit of Souza Cruz climbed 9.2% in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, to $ 435,7 million. In over a quarter of a reduction in cigarette consumption and increase in spending on interest payment, the advance was secured mainly by a lean operating expense.
Revenue shrank by 0.8% in the period, to $ 1.55 billion, influenced mainly by a new drop in cigarette consumption, of 4.7%. In the first half as a whole, there was a reduction of 15% in the number of units sold.
The costs have not adapted to the stability in billing and rose 11.8%, dropping the gross margin in 4.4 percentage points compared to a year earlier, to 60.5%. Gross profit fell 7.6% to r $ 938,5 million.
The adjustment in profitability came from operational expenditure, which decreased 35% compared to the second quarter of 2012. With this, the earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit, the acronym in English) rose by 13.7% to r $ 647,5 million, 5.3 percentage points gain in margin, to 41.7%.
The financial result prevented a larger increase in profit. The balance between gains from investments and spending on interest payment and Exchange variation was negative at R $ 15.2 million, down from a positive number in R $ 10,3 million between April and June 2012.