Unilever Nigeria Nets N5.7bn Q2 Profit, After 324.89% Finance Income Growth

Consumer and household goods conglomerate, Unilever Nigeria, on Friday gave its shareholders reasons to cheer, going by the half-year financial score-card presented to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showing that profit before and after tax grew at a faster rate than sales revenue. This was despite the 31.65% rise in marketing and administrative expenses and was helped by the significant 324.89% growth in finance income for the period, among others.

Turnover from sales rose to N48.125bn from N42.629bn in the corresponding period of 2017, cost of sales jumped 11.75% to N32.802bn, compared to N29.353bn; resulting in gross profit of N15.322bn, which was 15.41% better than the prior half-year’s N13.275bn.

Selling & distribution expense climbed 12.92% up to N2.083bn from N1.845bn; just as marketing and administrative expenses stood at N7.029bn from N5.339bn; following which operating profit rose marginally to N6.209bn from N6.091bn.

There was an almost even contribution from its food products, as well as the home and personal care operating segments. While food products yielded N18.249bn and N2.612bn revenue and operating profit respectively, the home and personal products pooled N24.379bn and N3.49bn respectively.
A further breakdown showed that in the six-month period, sales revenue was concentrated in the domestic environment at N46.755bn, compared to N41.868bn in 2017, while export revenue stood at N1.369bn, almost double the N761.159m of 2017.

Finance income rose to N1.505bn from N354.4m, helped by the N1.45bn interest on call deposits and bank accounts, up from N342.508m.
Finance cost fell significantly from N1.63bn to N169.42m, which was mainly the due from the interest cost on defined benefit plans of N118.737m, down from N161.057m. This was also helped by the nil interest on intercompany loan and exchange loss difference on bank accounts, which stood at N681.845m and N314.757m respectively in the prior Q2.

Profit before tax ballooned to N7.545bn, which was 56.7% up from N4.815bn. Profit after tax at N5.719bn rose from N3.676bn, or 55.54%, representing Earnings Per Share of 100 kobo, up from 97 kobo.

https://investdata.com.ng/2018/07/unilever-nigeria-nets-n5-7bn-q2-profit-after-324-89-finance-income-growth/#more