By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Soap maker, Unilever Nigeria Plc said on Friday its pretax profit for the first quarter (Q1) period ended March 31, 2015 declined 21 percent to N864.7 million from N1.089 billion recorded a year earlier.
Also, post tax profit dipped same margin of 21 percent to N590.44 million from N750.6 million reported in the same period of 2014.
Revenue grew to N14.910 billion in the review period of 2015 from N13.834 billion posted in Q1 of 2014, Unilever Nigeria said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Cordros in its analysis of the result say interestingly, revenue grew at the fastest year-on-year (y/y) pace since Q3-2013 and is the first y/y top-line growth since Q2-2014.
According to the analysis, another positive from this result was the y/y decline in operating expenses, in continuation from Q4-2014 (-33.5% y/y), as the management of the company furthers the elimination of wastages.
“However, these two positives were dispelled by higher raw materials input costs (which mirrors the significant y/y divergence in exchange rates and finance charges,” Cordros affirmed.
