HUL Q4 Profit Falls 1% On Lower Sales Volume; Recommends Dividend

On Thursday, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) reported a 1.2 percent decline in standalone profit to Rs 1,519 crore for the March-ended quarter from Rs 1,538 crore in the same period last year.

Revenue from operations in for the quarter under review fell by 9.4 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 9,011 crore due to decline in sales volumes due to the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

"The spread of COVID 19 impacted the business from mid-March, which culminated into scaling down of operations post the national lockdown. Domestic Consumer Growth declined by 9% with a decline of 7% in Underlying Volume Growth. Reported EBITDA margin reduced by 40 bps (160 bps reduction on comparable basis after adjusting for accounting impact of Ind AS 116). Profit after tax (PAT) was lower by 1%. In this challenging economic context, HUL performance has been competitive with corporate market share gains," HUL said in a statement.

The FMCG also said that its board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 14 for the financial year ended March 2020 on equity shares of one rupee each. "The Company had earlier paid an interim dividend of Rs. 11/- per share on November 05, 2019. The total dividend for the said period amounts to Rs. 25/- per Equity Share of face value of Re. 1/- each," it said.