Unilever FY16 Profit Rises; Underlying Sales Up 3.7% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Unilever plc (UN, ULVR.L, UL) reported 2016 full year profit before tax of 7.47 billion euros compared to 7.22 billion euros, previous year. Profit to shareholders' equity increased year-over-year to 5.18 billion euros or 1.82 euros per share compared to 4.91 billion euros or 1.72 euros per share, previous year. Core earnings per share increased by 3.1% to 1.88 euros for the full year, including an adverse currency impact of 3.7%. Constant core earnings per share increased by 6.8% to 1.94 euros primarily driven by underlying sales growth and improved core operating margin.

Full year turnover decreased 1.0% to 52.71 billion euros from 53.27 billion euros, a year ago. Underlying sales growth was 3.7%, with price up 2.8% and volume up 0.9%.

Paul Polman, CEO, stated: "We have delivered another good all-round performance despite severe economic disruptions, particularly in India and Brazil, two of our largest markets. Our priorities for 2017 continue to be volume growth ahead of our markets, a further increase in core operating margin and strong cash flow. The tough market conditions which made the end of the year particularly challenging are likely to continue in the first half of 2017. Against this background, we expect a slow start with growth improving as the year progresses."