Dean Foods profit beats Wall Street view

LOS ANGELES Aug 7 (Reuters) - Top U.S. dairy company Dean Foods Co, which is spinning out a unit that sells Silk soy milk and Horizon Organic dairy products, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday on broad-based growth and cost controls.

Second-quarter net income attributable to Dean Foods was $56 million, or 30 cents per share. A year earlier, it reported a loss of $51 million, or 28 cents per share a year earlier, when it booked a $131 million charge related to the settlement of the Tennessee dairy farmer class action litigation.

Adjusted earnings for the latest quarter was 36 cent per share, topping analysts' average estimate by 5 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net sales dipped to $3.13 billion from $3.30 billion a year earlier, due to lower dairy commodity costs.

Dean Foods separately announced plans to sell 20 percent of WhiteWave Foods Co, which will be comprised of Dean Foods' WhiteWave-Al pro segment, in an initial public offering. That unit also sells International Delight coffee creamer products.

At the time of the IPO, Dean Foods Chairman and Chief Executive Gregg Engle will remain chairman of Dean, but will take on the roles of chairman and CEO of WhiteWave. Gregg Tanner, president of Dean's fresh dairy business will be promoted to CEO of Dean.