MEXICO CITY, July 23 (Reuters) - Fast-food chain

operator Alsea posted a 68.4% fall in its

second-quarter net profit year-on-year on Tuesday, weighed by

higher financial costs and exchange rate effects, the company

said in a filing to Mexico's stock exchange.

The Mexico City-based firm's net profit from April to June

landed at 140.08 million pesos ($7.66 million), coming in well

below the mean 689.8 million pesos predicted by analysts polled

by LSEG.

Revenues for Alsea, which operates chain restaurants and

cafes including Starbucks ( SBUX ), Burger King and

Domino's Pizza, ticked up 1.6% to 19.25 billion pesos,

also under an LSEG forecast of 19.99 billion.

The restaurant operator's financial costs were up 54% in the

quarter compared to a year ago, swelling by 655 million pesos,

according to Tuesday's filing.

The company said its net sales grew 2.3% from the same

quarter last year, but would have grown 9.6% excluding the

effect from exchange rate fluctuations.

The local currency in Mexico, where Alsea does most of

its business, weakened in the second quarter nearly 7% against

the U.S. dollar compared to a year ago.

While Alsea operates in a dozen countries across Latin

America and Europe, 56.1% of its sales in the second quarter

took place in Mexico.

Sales in South America, which represented 15% of sales in

the second quarter, were down 9.0%, the company said,

attributing the drop primarily to the weakening of the Argentine

peso against the Mexican peso and a slowdown in consumption.

Europe represented about a third of total sales, which were

down 2.7%.

"Despite the macroeconomic challenges in some of our

geographies, we managed to maintain growth in sales," Chief

Executive Armando Torrado said in a statement, crediting

"constant" product innovation and a focus on the quality of its

brands' service and operations.