Unilever Plc FY18 Profit Rises; Underlying Sales, Excl. Spreads, Up 3.1%

(RTTNews) - Unilever plc (UN, ULVR.L, UL) reported profit before tax of 12.38 billion euros for 2018 compared to 8.15 billion euros, prior year. Earnings per share were up 62.0% at 3.48 euros. Underlying earnings per share increased by 5.2% to 2.36 euros, after a negative currency impact of 7.6%. Constant rate underlying earnings per share increased by 12.8%

Full year turnover was 50.98 billion euros compared to 53.71 billion euros, prior year. Underlying sales growth excluding spreads was 3.1% for the period, with 2.1% volume and 1.0% price.

Alan Jope, CEO, stated: "In 2019, we expect market conditions to remain challenging. We anticipate underlying sales growth will be in the lower half of our multi-year 3-5% range, with continued improvement in underlying operating margin and another year of strong free cash flow. We remain on track for our 2020 goals."