The net profit of Unilever Pakistan, for the third quarter, recorded an unprecedented improvement because of one-time gain of oil unit during the period.
The company's profit during July to September amounted to Rs 1.020 billion as compared with Rs 403 million of the same period last year.
According to the financial statement released to Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), the company gained Rs 945.056 million during the period after the disposal of oil business, meaning Dalda unit, to a local business group.
During the third quarter, earnings on tea and personal health care segments improved due to a) higher tea prices and tariff rationalisation on tea imports announced in the budget, and b) successful launch of new variants in the food and personal health care segment.
Naveed Ahmed, research analyst from Elixir Securities, said that earnings from Tea segment are expected to improve on account of higher tea prices and tariff rationalisation announced in the budget where import duty was reduced to 15 percent from 20 percent.
During 3QCY04, Unilever completed sale of its Dalda unit to Westbury Group for Rs 1.33 billion which would result in a one-time after-tax gain.
"We expect the company to post full year earnings of Rs 1880 million (EPS: PKR141.35) and distribute cash dividend in the range of Rs 145-Rs 150 inclusive of one-time pay-out derived from sale of Dalda unit," Naveed said.
The company's net sales fell to Rs 4.768 billion as compared with Rs 5.571 billion of the same period a year ago.