21st Jan 2014 07:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Consumer goods giant Unilever PLC Tuesday reported a drop in revenues in the fourth quarter as expected, but beat analysts expectations for underlying sales growth, margin improvements, and core earnings per share, for both the fourth quarter and the financial year as a whole.
For the fourth quarter, Unilever reported total revenues of EUR11.8 billion, in line with analysts consensus, and driven by its personal-care division, which more than offset softness in its food division and its under-invested Spreads business. It reported underlying sales growth of 4.1%, with volume up 2.7% and pricing up 1.4%.
Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman said looking forward, he still expects ongoing volatility in the external environment.
Unilever reported a pretax profit of EUR7.11 billion for the financial year ended December 31, 2013, up 9% at current rates and 16% at constant rates from EUR6.53 billion the prior year.
Operating profit for the year was EUR7.51 billion, up 8% at current foreign-exchange rates and 15% at constant currencies, when compared with EUR7.0 billion a year earlier.
For the full year, the maker of everything from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry's ice cream said revenues fell by 3% to EUR49.8 billion, hit by a slowdown in emerging markets and currency headwinds, as foreign-exchange rates went against it during the year.
Unilever reported underlying sales growth of 4.3%, with volume up 2.5% and prices up 1.8%. Despite a slowdown in emerging markets, the company said that emerging markets underlying sales growth was 8.7%, with volume up 4.8%
Cost cutting during the year and product innovation protected margins, it said, despite the decline in total revenues, with core operating margin for the year up 40 basis points at 14.1%, driven by gross margin up 110 basis points.
Unilever said core earnings per share for the year rose by 3% to EUR1.58 per share. Analysts were expecting flat core earnings per share of EUR1.52 a share. It also declared a quarterly dividend of EUR0.269 per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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