20 July 2018 ( Lagos ) : Unilever Nigeria Plc announced its financial results for the half year ended June 30, 2018 today, showing profit after tax (PAT) of N 5.5 bn.

According to the unaudited results, Unilever posted a revenue of N 48.12 billion in 2018, up from N42.62 billion in the corresponding period of 2017.

An analysis of the results indicated that cost of sales increased by 11.7 per cent from N29.35 billion to N32.80 billion. Gross profit increased by 15.4% and stood at N15.32 billion, compared with N13.27 billion in 2015. Selling and distribution expenses went up by 12.9% from N 1.84 billion to N 2.08 billion, while marketing and administrative expenses shot up by a whopping 31.65%, mainly due to increase in overheads cost. As a result operating profit improved only marginally improved by 1.93% from N 6.09 billion to N 6.20 billion in 2015.

Their finance cost dramatically reduced by 89.60 % .Simultaneously their finance income surged by 324.89%. Consequently, their profit before tax jumped from N 4.8 bn million to N 7.5 billion, while PAT soared to N 5.5 billion in 2018, from N 3.5 billion in 2017.

Hence, Unilever posted some pretty strong and convincing H1’2018 results.They gained income on call deposits and bank accounts as well as exchange gain, while reducing their interest costs on third party bank loans, intracompany loans and exchange losses.

Their food products business (tea, savory and spreads ) was the segment that saw drastic improvement where their revenue grew from N 18.2 bn in H1’ 2017 to N 22.0 bn in H1’2018, although due to their increase in their depreciation and amortization cost by 158%, their segmental operating profit marginally increased to N 2.8 bn from N 2.6 bn.

From a geographical standpoint their exports increased from N 761 million to N 1.3 bn.

They declared a dividend of N 2.8 billion in 2018.

Reporting for EasyKobo on Friday, 20 July 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria