Monsanto Excludes Media From 4th-Qtr Earnings Conference Call
Bloomberg News
January 21, 1999, 10:20 a.m. ET
St. Louis, Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co., a producer
of genetically improved crops, drugs and nutritional products,
barred the media from a telephone conference call with investors
and analysts after reporting its fourth-quarter earnings.
The St. Louis-based maker of Roundup herbicide, NutraSweet
sweetener and the insomnia drug Ambien, said the call was open to
investment analysts and as many shareholders as the company's
telephone conferencing capacity allowed. The company declined to
say what that capacity is. Shareholders were allowed on the call
on a first come, first served basis, the company said.
Monsanto said it did not violate public disclosure
regulations in excluding the media from the call and the detailed
discussions with top executives, which can result in significant
moves in the price of its stock.
''Monsanto makes all material information available broadly
to the public in accordance with the existing regulations, and
that is done prior to any communication with either the financial
community or the media,'' said Scarlett Foster, a Monsanto
spokeswoman.
By that Foster means Monsanto releases its earnings press
release to one or more of the big U.S. news services, including
Bloomberg News, before speaking to investors, analysts or
reporters. In distributing news across one or more of these
electronic news services, companies meet the broad public
disclosure requirements set down by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Those regulations do not require companies to include news
organizations on its calls with investment analysts and
investors, even though the discussions could potentially move the
company's stock.
''Our analyst calls have historically been open to all
investors and analysts and we work individually and in groups
with the media and provide them broad access to our executives,''
said Foster. ''Everyone with an interest in this company has
equal access to information and we do that through a variety of
methods.''
Monsanto said its fourth-quarter profit before charges fell
51 percent to $27 million, or 5 cents a share, from profit before
a charge of $55 million, or 9 cents in the year-ago period. The
results were in line with analysts expectations. Revenue rose 18
percent to $2.14 billion from $1.82 billion in the year-earlier
period.
After pretax charges of $858 million, or $1.01 a share, to
cover the cost of about 1,700 job cuts, asset sales and write-
offs associated with research acquired along with its purchase of
DeKalb Genetics Corp., the company posted a loss from continuing
operations of $603 million, or $1.00 a share.
In the year-ago period, a charge of $50 million, or 8 cents
a share, to write off research underway at an acquired company,
led to net income of $5 million, or 1 cent a share.
--Toni Clarke in the Chicago newsroom (312) 692-3725 /mfr |
