Brazil's Cosan reports loss, secures two big loans

* Sugar and ethanol producer Cosan posts bigger loss

* Company secures 1.89 billion reais in loans

SAO PAULO, June 26 (Reuters) - Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Cosan (CSAN3.SA)(CZZ.N) reported a fourth-quarter net loss on Friday and said it had secured loans totaling up to 1.89 billion reais ($974.2 million) to refinance debt and fund expansion plans.

The company lost 40.2 million reais ($20.7 million) in the fiscal quarter that ended March 31, compared with a loss of 5.3 million reais in the same period in 2008. For the 2009 fiscal year, Cosan lost 473.8 million reais versus a loss of 47.8 million reais a year earlier.

Cosan said its bottom line suffered from a depreciation of the Brazilian currency (BRBY) over the last year, which increased the cost of financing its dollar-denominated debt. A string of recent acquisitions also weighed on its balance sheet, it said.

The company's net debt ballooned to 3.04 billion reais at the end of March from 621.7 million reais a year earlier.

On an operational level, however, Cosan's results showed some improvement. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of cash flow known as EBITDA, rose to 165.9 million reais in the fourth quarter from 49.9 million reais in the year-earlier period.

Net revenue also rose sharply, climbing to 2.35 billion reais from 843 million reais in the fourth quarter of 2008. For the fiscal year, which coincides with Brazil's main sugar cane harvest, revenue jumped to 6.27 billion reais from 2.74 billion reais in the 2008 fiscal year.

Cosan said separately on Friday it had secured a credit line of up to 1.1 billion reais from Banco Bradesco (BBDC4.SA) to refinance promissory notes it issued last year to acquire Exxon Mobil's fuel distribution assets in Brazil. The loan matures in November 2010.

The company said it also obtained a loan of 788 million reais from Brazil's national development bank BNDES, 639 million reais of which will be used to build a new sugar and ethanol mill in Jatai, in Goias state. The BNDES loan has a 12-year maturity, Cosan said.

The remaining 149 million reais will be used to help finance a power generation project at its Gasa mill in Sao Paulo state. ($=1.94 reais) (Reporting by Todd Benson and Alberto Alerigi Jr, editing by Dave Zimmerman)