Bottler PepsiAmericas Inc

, which is being bought by PepsiCo Inc

, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit, hurt by forex pressures and charges related to restructuring its Caribbean business.

The second-biggest Pepsi bottler after Pepsi Bottling Group Inc

said the restructuring had negatively impacted worldwide volumes and revenue during the quarter.

PepsiAmericas said it recorded a total of $12.1 million in severance and impairment charges related to intangible and fixed assets in the Caribbean.

The bottler had combined most of its Caribbean business with Central America Beverage Corp (CABCORP) in May last year as part of a joint venture between the two companies.

The JV merged PepsiAmericas' Caribbean business, excluding the Bahamas, with CABCORP's Central American operations, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Earlier this month, the company said it will not conduct a conference call to discuss quarterly results, in view of its pending merger with PepsiCo Inc

.

WEAK FOURTH QUARTER

PepsiCo, the world's second-largest soft drink maker after Coca Cola Co , had agreed to buy bottlers Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas in a sweetened $7.8 billion deal in August last year.

The maker of Pepsi-Cola drinks and Frito-Lay snacks reported fourth-quarter results on Thursday and said it expects the deal to be completed by the end of this month.

On Friday, PepsiAmericas reported quarterly earnings of 28 cents a share, down from 30 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the bottler earned 16 cents a share.

Operating income more than halved to $42.5 million, while net sales slipped 17 percent to $968.3 million.

Analysts were looking for earnings of 33 cents a share, on revenue of $1.08 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of the Minneapolis-based company, which have risen 68 percent in the last one year, fell 2 percent to $28.87 in trading before the bell. They had closed at $29.57 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Shradhha Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)