Merchant Banking Holds Back Leucadia's Profits

Leucadia National (NYSE: LUK) is a challenging company for many investors to understand. Its biggest business is its National Beef meat company, which generates more than double the revenue of any other business unit within the conglomerate. Yet many investors know Leucadia best for its Jefferies Group unit in the financial industry. Moreover, you'll find several other smaller businesses in the financial and merchant banking industries that flesh out the Leucadia portfolio.

Coming into Thursday's third-quarter financial report, Leucadia investors were prepared for weaker results from the company. In that light, the company's big boost in revenue came as a pleasant surprise, and better bottom-line performance than anticipated also helped to show the resiliency of Leucadia's business model. Let's look more closely at how Leucadia National did and whether it can fully recover from its challenges in the near future.

Image source: National Beef.

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Source: Fool.com