Oreo cookies maker Mondelez's results beats estimates

(Reuters) - Mondelez International Inc , the maker of Cadbury chocolates and Oreo cookies, reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue, helped by lower costs and higher organic sales in emerging markets.

The company is in the midst of a plan to reduce costs by about $3 billion (2 billion pounds) by the end of 2018 through measures such as opening more efficient manufacturing plants and zero-based budgeting.

Mondelez's total costs fell nearly 20 percent in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a year earlier.

Net income attributable to Mondelez was $7.26 billion, or $4.46 per share, including a $7.12 billion gain due to divestitures in its coffee business. The company earned $899 million, or 53 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it earned 42 cents per share in the latest quarter.

Net revenue fell 18 percent to $6.85 billion, hurt by lower sales in Europe, its largest market. This was the eight straight quarter of sales declines.

Mondelez said organic revenue increased 3.7 percent, helped by a 10.3 percent jump in sales in emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 41 cents on revenue of $6.81 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Mondelez's shares closed at $46.60 on Tuesday. They were unchanged in premarket trading on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Nayan Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Savio D'Souza)