Onex reports net profit vs. year-earlier loss

TORONTO (Reuters) - Private equity firm Onex Corp (OCX.TO: Quote) posted a third-quarter net profit on Wednesday after recording a loss a year earlier, helped by a solid performance from most of its business investments.

Onex said it earned C$38 million ($31.4 million), or 30 Canadian cents a share, in the three months ended September 30. That compared with a loss of C$77 million, or 60 Canadian cents, in the same period a year earlier.

Toronto-based Onex, which has investments in industries as diverse as electronics manufacturing, health care and cosmetics, said revenue rose 17 percent to C$7.1 billion from C$6.0 billion a year earlier.

"Our businesses will not be immune to the effects of a serious economic downturn, so we and management are positioning them defensively by reducing costs where appropriate, and carefully managing capital spending," Onex Chief Executive Gerald Schwartz said in a statement.

"That said, our businesses are ... conservatively capitalized ... and should be able to weather the difficult environment ahead."

($1=$1.23 Canadian)

(Reporting by Wojtek Dabrowski; Editing by Peter Galloway)