Unilever Plc released it’s third quarter earnings and by all indications, the company seems to have leveled up. Revenue increased 3% to N41.6b when compared to the same period last year. Gross profit margin remained largely unchanged as they posted a gross profit of N15.5b for the period. Operational profit for the period was N6.1b a 4.3% increase from Q3 2011. The company successfuly held cost down despite increase in revenue as it posted pre-tax earnings of N5.7b. Despite its impressive returns, it posted negative cash balance of N3.5b with overdrafts taking up about N2.6b. Its important to note that Unilever generated an operating cash flow of N4.1b but spent most of it on investments and debt repayment of N5.2b and N5.3b respectively. Unilever is currently bogged down by huge trade payables amounting to N16b helping it trade at a negative working capital of N8.4b. However, these are short term issues and must be sorted out before the end of their financial year. Unilever posted Return on Average Equity of about 44%, one of the highest in the industry and stock market as a whole this quarter. At above 17% for ROA there is little stopping the bank from leveraging on its assets to increase revenue and profits.
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Unilever 2012 Q4 unaudited accounts can be found on the website of the NSE
You repeatedly referred to Unilever as a bank in the write up. Kindly correct.
Thanks for the observation. It has been corrected