Unilever Profit Up 2% in First Half of Year

By Saabira Chaudhuri 

LONDON-- Unilever PLC Thursday said its profit rose 2% for the first half of the year as the consumer goods giant's focus on controlling costs paid off.

The maker of Magnum ice cream, Dove soap and Axe deodorant posted a first-half net profit of EUR2.51 billion ($2.77 billion), up from the EUR2.49 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier, while revenue fell 2.6% to EUR26.3 billion as a result of unfavorable currency movements.

Underlying sales--which strip out the impact of acquisitions, disposals and currency movements--grew 4.7%, which was better than the 2.9% that Unilever logged for the same period last year. Diluted per-share earnings rose 1% to EUR0.88. After stripping out one-time items and currency movements, per-share earnings rose by 1.3% to EUR0.92.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company has been working to mitigate the impact of a turbulent macroeconomic environment by raising prices and releasing premium versions of its products. The company has also adopted so-called "zero-base budgeting" or justifying each year's expenses from scratch to rein in costs.

Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 21, 2016 02:51 ET (06:51 GMT)

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