FMCG major Hindustan Unilever delivered a lower-than-expected 8% growth in net profit for the first quarter at ₹2,472 crore, compared with ₹2,289 crore a year ago. Its sales grew 7% to ₹14,931 crore, compared to ₹14,016 crore a year earlier.
The homecare-to-foods major reported year-on-year sales volume growth at a modest 3% for the April-June quarter – well below the estimates of most brokerages that had predicted a reading of around 4-5%. In fact, IIFL expected HUL to post sales growth of 8%, but here too, the company’s actual numbers were slightly disappointing.
HUL’s EBITDA margins also expanded by 40 basis points YoY to 23.6% – most analysts were expecting it to expand by at least 65 basis points on account of softening commodity prices. EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
