P&G plans $30 bn share buyback

Procter & Gamble, the largest US consumer-goods company, forecast annual profit that trailed analysts' estimates and said it would spend as much as $30 billion over the next three years to buy back shares.

Fourth-quarter profit rose 19 per cent and sales climbed 8 per cent, both exceeding estimates, P&G said today. The company benefited from demand for new varieties of Tide detergent and Olay skin lotion.

Earnings this year will be as much as $3.47 a share, P&G said in a statement. That lags behind an estimate of $3.48, the average of 18 analyst projections compiled by Bloomberg.

"The guidance may be interpreted as a little disappointing,'' said Walter Todd, who helps manage P&G shares at Greenwood Capital Associates in South Carolina. His firm is affiliated with WealthTrust, which has holdings in nine investment firms that manage $6 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Clayton Daley said the company, facing higher costs for commodities, may raise prices again this year after increases on Folgers coffee and detergents lifted sales. Unilever, the maker of Dove soap and Knorr soup, said yesterday it would cut 11 per cent of jobs as it tries to catch up to P&G's 14 per cent sales growth of the past five years.

P&G's fourth-quarter net income climbed to $2.27 billion, or 67 cents a share, 1 cent more than analysts estimated. Profit a year earlier was $1.9 billion, or 55 cents. Sales rose to $19.3 billion in the three months through June, exceeding estimates by $200 million.