Jan. 23, 2013, 2:32 a.m. EST
Unilever warns of 'intense competition'; profit up
By Simon Zekaria
LONDON--Unilever PLC Wednesday warned of a challenging global market due to "intense competition and volatile commodity costs," but nonetheless reported a 5.4% rise in net profit as its sales accelerated.
Net profit for the fiscal year rose to 4.48 billion euros ($5.96 billion) from 4.25 billion euros a year earlier.
Demand for home and personal-care items like cleaners and deodorant across Asia, Africa and Latin America are helping the consumer products giant outperform peers that are more exposed to food sales, as well as debt-laden Western Europe and U.S. markets.
Fourth-quarter sales, excluding acquisitions, disposals and currency movements, rose 7.8%, beating consensus expectations of 6.3% growth. This compares with a 6.6% rise a year earlier and a 5.9% increase in the previous three months.
Volumes on the same basis rose 4.8%, up from 0.1% growth last year and 3.4% in the third quarter.
Unilever proposed a quarterly dividend of 0.243 euros a share, payable in March. It is targeting profitable volume growth ahead of its markets and sustainable operating margin improvement over the longer term.
The Anglo-Dutch firm, behind products such as Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Knorr soup and Dove soap, is the second-largest maker of branded household products by revenue after U.S.-based Procter & Gamble Co. (PG).
Unilever's fiscal-year gross profit margin rose as price increases and savings offset higher commodity costs.
Unilever shares closed Tuesday at 2451 pence, valuing the company at 31.46 billion pounds. |
