Sadia Fires Finance Chief After 760 Million-Real Currency Loss

By Carlos Caminada

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Sadia SA, Brazil's second-biggest food company, fired Chief Financial Officer Adriano Lima Ferreira after the company posted a 760 million-real ($410 million) loss from currency-related investments.

Investor relations director Welson Teixeira Jr. assumed Lima's post, Concordia, Brazil-based Sadia said in a statement last night. The transactions carried out by Lima's finance team exceeded Sadia's self-imposed limits for currency risk, Teixeira said in a conference call today. Sadia is conducting an internal audit and will restructure the finance department, he said.

``We are carrying out a thorough assessment,'' Teixeira said. ``There have been excesses.''

Sadia increased its short- and medium-term debt to help cover the loss from currency operations, Teixeira said. The company will operate with higher debt levels in coming months to proceed with the majority of its expansion plans, he said.

The loss was limited to financial transactions and didn't affect operations, Teixeira said. Sadia currently has 1.6 billion reais of cash, he said.

``We were able to reestablish the levels of liquidity of the company,'' Christiane Assis, Sadia's investor relations manager, said in another conference call. ``We are very comfortable with the levels right now.''

Sadia's cash position is more than enough to honor any payments in the next 12 months, Assis said.

A small part of the loss was related to transactions with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Teixeira said, without disclosing any details.

To contact the reporter on this story: Carlos Caminada in Sao Paulo at at ccaminada1@bloomberg.net