Kellogg Profit Beats as Latin America Sales Rise

Kellogg Co, the world's largest maker of breakfast cereals, reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and sales as demand rose in Latin America.

The maker of Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies said on Tuesday that sales in Latin America rose 6 percent to $295 million in the first quarter ended April 4.

The company's sales rose across product lines in Asia Pacific and in its Pringles business in Europe, but a strong dollar more than offset the benefit of this rise.

The dollar has surged about 20 percent against a basket of major currencies in the past year, making sales denominated in other currencies less valuable in dollar terms.

Kellogg gets about a third of its revenue from outside North America.

Sales in Kellogg's U.S. morning foods business, which includes cereal, fell almost 3 percent to $776 million. The business has reported a rise in sales only once in the last eight quarters.

Net income attributable to Kellogg nearly halved to $227 million, or 64 cents per share, mainly due to higher expenses related to its cost-cutting program and its pension plans.

Excluding items, Kellogg earned 98 cents per share.

Net sales fell 5 percent to $3.56 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 91 cents per share and revenue of $3.55 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Kellogg's shares were little changed at $64.25 in premarket trading on Tuesday. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Kirti Pandey)