Greif posts lower profit; warns of weak full year

(Reuters) - Industrial packaging company Greif Inc (GEF.N) reported a lower third-quarter profit as sales volumes at its rigid-industrial segment fell, and the company warned of continued weakness for the rest of 2012.

Net income fell to $40.7 million, or 70 cents per share, in the third quarter, from $66.9 million, or $1.14 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 75 cents per share.

Revenue fell 2 percent to $1.10 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 72 cents per share on revenue of $1.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Greif said sales volumes at the rigid-industrial packaging & services segment, its largest, declined 2 percent on a same-structure basis.

"For the remainder of fiscal 2012, we expect our rigid industrial packaging & services and flexible products & services segments to be impacted by lower volumes than previously anticipated," Chief Executive David Fischer said in a statement.

Grief earlier this month cut its full-year core profit forecast to between $445 million and $465 million.

Shares of the company closed at $40.70 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)