SAO PAULO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Cosan SA Industria e Comercio, Brazil's biggest sugar and ethanol producer, posteda surprise second-quarter loss of 198 million reais ($85million) late on Wednesday.
The company attributed the results to the noncash impact ofa weaker local currency on dollar-denominated debt.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had on average expected a profitof 71 million reais. Cosan earned 30 million reais in the firstquarter and posted a net loss of 17.1 million reais in thesecond quarter of 2012.
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 underlyingprofit, jumped to 381.6 million reais from 66.8 million reais ayear earlier.