NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-registered Bunge Ltd., the world's biggest oilseed processor, said first-quarter profit fell 76 percent on wrong way bets on soybean futures. The shares plummeted after Bunge said $40 million in trading losses won't be recovered.Net income was $14 million, or 5 cents a share, down from $58 million, or 48 cents a share, a year earlier, White Plains, New York-based Bunge said yesterday in a statement. Sales rose 46 percent to $8.19 billion as the company sold more fertiliser at higher prices in South America.

Earnings were better than analysts expected after Bunge on April 3 said results for the quarter were about break-even. At that time, four analysts had been expecting earnings of 77 cents a share, on average. Chief executive officer Alberto Weisser said cash commodity prices didn't keep up with futures, which Bunge uses to hedge inventory costs and purchases.

"The earnings shortfall will have to be made up by better performance in the next three quarters," JP Morgan analyst Pablo Zuanic wrote yesterday in a note to clients. Bunge, which is maintaining its forecast for full-year earnings, has "less room for error" for the rest of 2007, said Zuanic, who rates the shares "neutral" and had expected earnings of 1 cent per share.

Shares of Bunge fell $2.71, or 3.4 percent, to $75.99 at 1.18 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest drop since March 13. Before yesterday, the stock had gained 36 percent in the past year, reaching $85.68 on Feb. 22, the highest since Bunge went public in 2001.