SAO PAULO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Cosan SA Industria e Comercio, Brazil's biggest sugar and ethanol producer, posteda third-quarter profit of 208.8 million reais ($91.18 million)late Wednesday, helped by its growing retail fuels unit,according to a securities filing.
The earnings were 26 percent lower than during the 2012third quarter, but in line with analysts' expectations.
During this year's second quarter, Cosan reported anunexpected loss due to the effect of a weakening of theBrazilian real on the company's dollar-linked debt.
Analysts who cover the sector at Merrill Lynch, J.P.Morganand Itau BBA said they expected profits to recover from lastquarter but still lag last year at this time.
They expected earnings between 198 million and 238 millionreais in the quarter ending in September, after posting a netgain of 283 million reais a year ago.
Cosan is a partner with oil major Royal Dutch Shell in a fuel distribution and sugar venture called Raizen, and ithas a logistics arm, Rumo.
The group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciationand amortization, a closely watched measure of underlying profitreferred to as EBITDA, jumped to 722.6 million reais from 386.9million reais a year earlier.