Unilever Consumer Treatment profit slumps
Unilever Consumer Treatment, formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Bangladesh, posted a 46 per cent drop in profit last year as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
The listed multinational's earnings per show (EPS) fell to Tk 43.94 in 2020 from Tk 81.83 a year earlier.
"The loss of earnings mainly resulted from lower sales caused by a shortage of raw materials as the price of dry mix ingredients rose because of increased tariffs of the key material," said the company in a disclosure after a digital meeting of the board yesterday.
The board, during its 300th meeting, approved the audited financial statements for 2020. It advised a 440 % money dividend for shareholders for the entire year.
In the previous year, Unilever Consumer Care given a 530 % cash dividend.
The slump in profits was partly offset by savings from marketing and operating expenses, it added.
The tariffs on dry mix ingredients rose to 25 % from 15 per cent.
Shares of the multinational firm dropped 2.59 % to Tk 3,139 on the Dhaka STOCK MARKET yesterday.
At the year's end, the business's net asset benefit per show stood at Tk 123, although it was Tk 132 on the last day of 2019.
Unilever Consumer Care marketplaces and sells around 400 brands of items in a lot more than 190 countries. These include nutrition and oral health care products, the leading kinds staying Horlicks and Sensodyne.
In June, Unilever spent about Tk 2,020 crore to get more than 82 % of GSK's health food and drinks business in Bangladesh from Setfirst, a corporate director of the business.
Earlier found in 2018, GSK Bangladesh, a subsidiary of British multinational firm GSK Plc, shuttered its 60-year-old pharmaceuticals business in Bangladesh.
The company was stated with Dhaka STOCK MARKET since 1976 and has disbursed a lot more than 500 % cash dividend for days gone by five years.
