Jul 2006 Financial News

UCL Reports Half Year Results

Jul 24, 2006

Unilever Caribbean Limited (UCL) reported Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 63 cents for the half year ended June 30, 2006. This was 5.00 per cent up from 2005's half year EPS of 60 cents.

Gross Profit grew by 13.18 per cent to $82.888 million as Net Turnover rose 11.79 per cent to $191.472 million and Cost of Sales grew 10.75 per cent to $108.584 million. Operating Expenses rose 20.06 per cent to $61.220 million due largely to costs associated with IT improvement and some unplanned one-off costs. The hefty increase in Operating Expenses lead to a 2.60 per cent decrease in Operating Profit from $22.246 million in 2005 to $21.668 million in 2006.

A drop in the Effective Tax Rate from 29.80 per cent to 23.21 per cent cushioned the bottom line as Profit After Tax grew 6.54 per cent to $16.638 million.

The Directors have declared an interim dividend of 35 cents to be paid on August 25, 2006. The ex-dividend date is August 15, 2006.

Sreshtha Tewari
WISE Research Team