Unilever Nigeria Plc (NGX: UNILEVER) has posted a 60.67% growth in Profit for the half year period ended 30th June, 2024.
The unaudited interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2024 were released on the NGX Exchange Limited.
A glimpse of the Profit/Loss statement shows that the company’s profit for the H1 period stood at N4.44bn from a revenue of N63.91bn.
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Analysis of the Financial Statements
Income Statement:
- Revenue: N63.91 billion, compared to N45.35 billion in H1 2023. (40.92% YoY Growth). The Food Products segment of the company accounted for N37.13bn of the revenue while the Personal Care product segment accounted for N22.21bn. Beauty and Wellbeing segment brought in N4.58 billion. By geographical location, Nigeria is the company’s primary geographical segment as it comprises 97% of the company’s sales
- Gross Profit: N26.22 billion, compared to N13.09 billion in H1 2023 (100.26% YoY Growth). The company was able to manage its cost of sales well with the increased revenue. The cost of sales increased to N32.69 billion from N32.26 billion. UNILEVER achieved a Gross Profit Margin of 41.02% for the period in review (H1 2023: 26.87%).
- Selling and Distribution costs: N2.7 billion, compared to N1.8 billion in H1 2023.
- Marketing and Administrative Expenses: N17 billion, compared to N6.47 billion in H1 2023. The N7.17 billion of the expenditure went to Overheads, whileN7.94 billion rest went to brand and marketing.
- Finance Income & Cost: UNILEVER earned N809.73mn as interest on call deposits and bank accounts, while it spent N1.17bn paying interest on third party bank loans and N106.63mn on employee benefit charge. The company however, earned N3.29 billion as Exchange difference on bank balances.
- Profit Before Tax: N6.28 billion, compared to N5.85 billion in H1 2023. The company reported N1.85 billion as tax expense.
- Profit After Tax: N4.44 billion, compared to N2.76 billion in H1 2023 (60.67% YoY Growth).
- Earnings Per Share: 77kobo (71kobo in H1 2023).
Balance Sheet:
- Total Assets: N127.93 billion, compared to N116.3 billion as at 31st December 2023. Of these assets, N18.64bn is on property, plant and equipment under non-current assets, The company’s currents assets was N107.57 billion with N34.96bn being cash and bank balances. The company’s inventory stood at N26.98 billion, while its trade and other receivables N13.95. Advance and payments amounted to N31.63 billion.
- Total Liabilities: N53.29 billion, compared to N41.79 billion as at 31st December 2023. UNILEVER’s noncurrent loans and borrowings was N2.67 billion, while its trade and other payables accounts for N42.86bn of its total liabilities. The trade and other payables had increased by over N10 billion from N32bn as at 31 Dec. 2023.
- Total equity: stood at N74.64 billion. N56.81bn of this amount is share premium, and N14.95bn is from retained earnings.
Cashflow:
- Operating activities: N15.79 billion was used in operating activities, against N15.52 billion generated in H1 2023.
- Investing activities: N165.17 million was used for investing activities, against N1.29 billion generated in H1 2023.
- Financing activities: N3.88 billion was used for dividend payment and N1.17 billion as Interest paid on trade obligations with banks.
- Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period was N34.96 billion (H1 2023: N82.73 billion).
There was no corporate action announcement following the release of the financial statements.
About the company
Unilever Nigeria Plc. was established in 1923 as a soap manufacturing company – West Africa Soap Company– by Lord Leverhulme.
It later became known as Lever Brothers Nigeria Plc. Today, it is the longest serving manufacturing organization in Nigeria.
After a series of mergers and acquisitions, the Company diversified into manufacturing and marketing of foods, beauty and personal care products.
These mergers and acquisitions resulted in the absorption of Lipton Nigeria Limited in 1985, Cheesebrough Industries Limited in 1988 and Unilever Nigeria Limited in 1996.
The Company changed its name to Unilever Nigeria Plc. in 2001 in line with the global strategic direction of the business
Unilever Nigeria Plc. is a member of the Unilever Group, one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies.
The Company was quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1973 and is a truly multi-local, multinational organization with international and local brands in her portfolio.
The international brands include Close-Up, Pepsodent, LUX, Lifebuoy, Rexona and Vaseline in the Personal Care division of the business; Knorr in the Foods division. Other Regional and local jewels include Pears and Royco.
Unilever has 5,745,005,417 outstanding ordinary shares, and a market capitalization of N107.43 billion. It’s share price is N18.7.
According to data on its 2023 annual report, Unilever Overseas Holdings B.V Holland holds 4.36 billion shares (75.96%) of UNILEVER. The parent company of Unilever Nigeria Plc is Unilever Overseas Holdings B.V. registered in the Netherlands, while the ultimate parent company is Unilever Plc, registered in the United Kingdom
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
