Nestle Dec quarter net drops 3% to Rs 74.16 cr

FMCG major Nestle India reported 3 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 74.16 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 as compared with Rs 76.49 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, even as its total income rose 9 per cent during the quarter.

Total income net of excise increased to Rs 628.54 crore for the quarter ended December 2005 from Rs 576.86 crore for the previous corresponding quarter.

For the full year ended December 31, 2005, the company's net profit grew 22.88 per cent to Rs 309.57 crore, against Rs 251.92 crore. Total income net of excise rose 11.53 per cent to Rs 2,500.64 crore from Rs 2242.03 crore last year.

The company's operating profit for the year, as a percentage of net sales, increased to 21.1 per cent in 2005 versus 20.2 per cent in 2004. Operating profit for the last quarter, however, slipped to 19.0 per cent from 23.3 per cent in 2004.

This is largely because of planned higher expenditure on advertisement and sales promotion coupled with the impact of higher commodity prices, particularly that of milk solids, green coffee, sugar and fuels/energies.

The Nestle board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 2 per equity share. This, in addition to the two interim dividends of Rs 5 and Rs 18 declared and paid out earlier, will take the company's dividend payout for the year 2005 to Rs 25 per equity share.