Hind Lever net rises 56%

Rs 82 crore extraordinary income from Doomdooma tea estate sale.

Hindustan Lever today announced a 56 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 520.86 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 compared with Rs 333.67 crore for the same period last year.

Net sales grew by 14.4 per cent at Rs 2974.33 crore during the quarter compared with the corresponding last quarter's Rs 2600.83 crore. The company saw a volume growth of about 7 per cent across categories in this period.

HLL's net profit would have gone up by 22.7 per cent to Rs 438.50 crore from Rs 357.51 crore had there been no extra-ordinary income. The company realised exceptional income of Rs 82 crore due to the sale of the Doomdooma tea estate.

Profit before interest and taxes for the quarter increased by 13.5 per cent at Rs 487.77 crore compared with Rs 429.82 crore for the corresponding quarter in 2004. FMCG sales grew at 15.8 per cent, with home and personal care products growing at 17.3 per cent and foods at 9 per cent, respectively.

The company's annual results were also impressive. The FMCG major posted 17.6 per cent growth in net profit for the year ended December, 2005 at Rs 1,408.10 crore compared with Rs 1,197.36 crore for 2004. The company recorded a double-digit growth in topline at 11.4 per cent after a gap of six years.

Net sales for the year stood at Rs 11,060.55 crore compared with Rs 9926.95 crore for 2004. Growth was broad-based across categories with the home and personal care (HPC) business growing by 14 per cent and foods by 8 per cent over the year.

The HLL board today recommended a final dividend of Rs 2.50 per equity share of Re 1 each for the year 2005.

This, along with an interim dividend of Rs 2.50 per share, works out to be a total dividend of Rs 5 per share for the year. Earnings per share stood at Rs 6.40 compared with Rs 5.44 in 2004.

Buoyed by the impressive results, the HLL stock today gained 7.16 per cent in the falling Mumbai market. The stock closed at Rs 224.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange against yesterday's close of Rs 209.45.

Profit before interest and tax for the year was up 1.1 per cent at Rs 1,471.37 crore compared with Rs 1,454.88 crore for 2004. The advertising and promotion spend for the year was significantly higher at Rs 1005.67 crore compared with Rs 835.98 crore for the previous year.

Harish Manwani, chairman, HLL said, "We recognise the challenge of inflationary cost pressures driven by crude oil prices and, in the competitive context, achieving cost leadership across the extended supply chain continues to be a priority."

Results for the quarter and the year were not comparable with those of the previous year due to the integration of subsidiaries, International Fisheries, Lipton India Exports and Merryweather Food Products, from January 1, 2005, and of TOC Disinfectants and Lever India Exports, from April 1, 2005, the company said in a statement.