Insight Details
Unilever Nigeria Plc – Moderate Operating Performance Supported by Higher Interest Income
May 5, 2018
Unilever Nigeria Plc reported another impressive performance in its H1’18 unaudited report published recently, as the revenue rose by 12.89% to ₦48.13 billion (vs. ₦42.63 billion in H1’17).
The upsurge in the revenue came majorly from improvement in food products segment and home and personal care segment. During the period, food products segment of the company contributed ₦22.04 billion (H1’17: ₦18.25 billion) while home and personal care segment contributed ₦26.09 billion (H1’17: ₦24.38 billion) to the revenue respectively.
The company continues to struggle with high cost of raw materials and consumables as cost of sales increased by 11.75% to ₦32.80 billion in H1’18 from ₦29.35 billion in H1’17. Consequently, gross profit rose by 15.41% to ₦15.32 billion in H1’18 (vs. ₦13.28 billion reported in H1’17).
During the first half of 2018, selling and distribution expenses increased by 12.92% to ₦2.08 billion (vs. ₦1.84 billion in first half of 2017 ) while marketing and administrative expenses increased by 31.65% to ₦7.03 billion (vs. ₦5.34 billion reported in first half of 2017).
Due to improvement in interest on call deposits and bank accounts, finance income increase by 324.89% to ₦1.51 billion in H1’18 (vs. ₦0.35 billion recorded in H1’17) while finance cost decreased by 89.61% to ₦0.17 billion in H1’18 (vs. ₦1.63 billion in H1’17).