BY Onome Amuge.
Unilever Nigeria Plc has reported a profit after tax of N1.91 billion in its half year unaudited financial statement for the period ended 30 June, 2022, reflecting 167 percent growth compared to N714.78 million recorded in the same period of 2021.
The manufacturing firm, which attributed the strong growth performance to the sharp increase in revenue and non-core operating income, also recorded a 586.17 percent profit before tax growth of N2.99 billion in the first half of 2022 from N434 million reported in H1 2021.
The company’s unaudited result also showed that its profit was driven by significant sales of its reportable segments, including food products and home & personal care products, with both segments posting a revenue of N43.81 billion in H1 2022, 35.12 percent increase from N32.42 billion recorded in the same period of 2021.
Revenue growth from the food products segment was up 39.5 percent year-on-year, generating a total of N19.87 billion in H1 2022 from N14.24 billion in H1 2021, while revenue from home and personal care products gained N23.9 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of 31.66 percent.
The company disclosed that it generated N66.65 million income from the transitional service agreement, while about N66.66 million non-core operating income led the profit in the period under review.
On the flipside, the period in review witnessed a persistent increase in prices of goods and services, thereby resulting in inflationary pressures that affected both consumers and producers.
Despite the double-digit food inflation, Unilever said the H1 2022 profit was supported by cost management practices as production costs increased by 22.3 percent to N29.61 billion from N24.2 billion reported in the corresponding period, while marketing and administrative expenses grew by 32.34 percent to N8.884 billion from N6.713 billion in the corresponding period of 2021.
Similarly, the company’s total operating expenses increased by roughly 36.4 percent to N11.17 billion from N8.19 billion recorded in the prior period.
A further look at the financial results showed that the company’s total assets currently stand at N119.9 billion, gaining about 10 percent from N108.3 billion recorded in the 2021 full year.
Prior to the report, Unilever Nigeria had declared a dividend of N0.50 kobo for 2021 and the company last traded on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) at N15.5 per share as of July 15, 2022.
