HUL Q4 net profit dips 3.9% on virus impact

NEW DELHI: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has reported 3.93 per cent year-on-year drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,520 crore for the March quarter, compared to Rs 1,574 crore in the same quarter last year.Revenue for the quarter fell 9.4 per cent to Rs 9,055 crore due to an underlying decline in volumes at 7 per cent during the quarter.

“The spread of Covid-19 impacted the business from mid-March, which culminated into scaling down of operations post the national lockdown,” said HUL CMD Sanjiv Mehta. The company has taken various cost-saving measures and has not cut any jobs or salary of employees so far due to the coronavirus pandemic but the future, he said, will depend on how the economy behaves after the country emerges from the health crisis.

EBITDA, a measure to evaluate the company’s operating performance, fell 11 per cent YoY with EBITDA margin contracting 42 basis points. “Margins contracted after 12 quarters (happened during Demon) especially because companies had 10 days of almost zero sales due to lockdown,” said Abneesh Roy, senior vice-president at Edelweiss Securities.

Segmentwise, revenue from homecare fell 4.3 per cent, beauty and personal care dipped 13.5 per cent and food and refreshment saw a de-growth of 6.7 per cent in revenue year-on-year.