HUL FY21 net profit rises 18% to Rs 7,954 crore

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Thursday reported a 18 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in net profit at Rs 7,954 crore for fiscal year 2020-21.

The company's turnover rose 18 per cent to Rs 45,311 crore during FY21, led by a 6 per cent domestic consumer growth, excluding the impact of merger of GSK CH and acquisition of VWash. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at Rs 11,324 crore, while EBITDA margin was at 25 per cent.

For January-March quarter, HUL's net profit grew 41 per cent to Rs 2,143 crore, while sales rose 34 per cent YoY to Rs 11,947 crore. Domestic consumer growth stood at 21 per cent during the quarter, with underlying volume growth of 16 per cent. EBITDA margin stood at 25 per cent.

The company said its focused actions on net revenue management and savings enabled it to manage inflationary pressures and deliver a healthy bottomline performance.

"Health, hygiene and nutrition forming 80 per cent of business grew in double-digits for the third consecutive quarter, while discretionary and out-of-home categories improved sequentially," HUL said in a release.

While home care segment sales grew 15 per cent during the March quarter, beauty and personal care segment rose 20 per cent. "A calibrated approach towards price increase has helped protect our business model even as vegetable oils continue to inflate at record levels. Consumer-focused innovations and contextual communications in hair and oral care continue to yield good results. Skin Care portfolio registered strong performance in hand and body care and face cleansing segments. Colour cosmetics performance improved sequentially," it said.

HUL's food and refreshment segment also grew 36 per cent in January-March. The company said it aims to further drive penetration in the category.

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"Our in-quarter performance was strong on both the topline and bottomline. Despite challenging times, in FY21 our business ecosystem has withstood the disruption and demonstrated agility and resilience across the value chain.... Our focus firmly remains behind delivering volume led competitive growth," HUL CMD Sanjiv Mehta said.

The company said the surge in COVID-19 cases is unprecedented, making it difficult to predict the near-term demand outlook. However, HUL's agility and responsiveness across the value chain is significantly better than pre-COVID. The company is also facing inflationary pressure in select large categories, and plans to tackle it through judicious pricing actions coupled with cost agility and savings programmes.

HUL's board declared a final dividend of Rs 17 per share. The company's shares were trading 0.58 per cent higher at Rs 2,421.05 on the BSE during afternoon trade on Thursday after the announcement of results.

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