The nine-month unaudited financials of Unilever Nigeria Plc, was submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, indicating that profit before and after tax significantly outpaced sales revenue, following the management’s ability to contain particularly the growth in expenses and finance cost, while finance income soared within the period.
Specifically, revenue grew by 10.72% to N72.305bn, from N65.302bn in the review period, with the home and personal care business segment contributing the lion’s share of N38.158bn, compared to N36.864bn; while N34.146bn came from the food products segment, up from N32.264bn. Also, all but N1.469bn of the turnover was earned from the domestic environment.
Cost of sales notched 10.64% from N44.695bn in 2017 to N49.45bn; resulting in gross profit of N22.855bn, 10.91% better than the N20.607bn in the preceding nine months; bringing operating profit to N10.469bn, with N5.353bn from the home and personal care segment and N4.944bn from food products; as against the N8.74bn, N4.661bn of which was from the home and personal care and N4.079bn from food products in prior nine months.
Selling and distribution expenses grew by a marginal 6.01% from N2.951bn to N3.129bn; administrative expenses climbed 28.94% up to N11.495bn, as against the previous N8.915bn, out of which overhead costs took the lion’s share of N6.524bn, up from N5.399bn; just as brands and marketing inched marginally to N2.926bn from N2.772bn; while service fees soared from N743.763m to N2.044bn. Other income for the period stood at N2.239bn, all of which was recorded in the third quarter (July to September), mainly the N2.027bn gain on sale of spreads business (Blueband margarine and all assets attached thereto), to Sigma Bico B.V, an entity incorporated by KKR & Co LP (it would henceforth maintain a transitional service arrangement and earn an income) on June 30. Unilever gained N152.507m from sale of its Aba factory in Abia State and the N58.836m TSA income.
Finance income stood at N2.465bn (N2.441bn of which was the interest on call deposits and bank accounts); representing a 314.1% growth, when compared to N593.22m in 2017. Finance cost slowed down by a significant 90.26% to N274.12m from N2.815bn, following the huge drop in interest on third party bank loans from N866.656m in 2017, to N96.016m; while interest cost on define benefit plans reduced also to N178.122m from N241.586m.
Profit before tax jumped to N12.652bn, 94.09% up from N6.518bn; while the N3.206bn tax, compared to the previous N1.914bn, brought profit after tax to N9.445bn, , representing Earnings Per Share of N1.64. The profit was up 105.16% from N4.604bn, or N1.28 kobo each.