Unilever Nigeria chose to go lavish with shareholder rewards at half-year 2026, despite a paltry increase in the net profit for the period, rather than take the long view in reinvesting the bulk of the cash in its business.
According to details of its corporate results on Tuesday, the consumer goods maker is doling out N2 to shareholders for every share owned by them, making the cash distribution four times more than the payout for same period of last year.
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It implies that as much as N11.5 billion, a 73.7 per cent equivalent of post-tax profit, will be allocated to equity investors for an accounting period in which the profit itself only grew by a single digit.
The Nigerian operation of the British multinational manufacturer posted N15.6 billion in profit after tax, 8.3 per cent better than a year ago. That is a record for the company as far as the half-year period is concerned.
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Revenue advanced by 22.2 per cent to N15.6 billion, but that pace could not be matched by earnings, whose muted growth during the period followed a general surge across various cost categories.
The food business of Unilever Nigeria, with a lineup of remarkable brands like Blue Band Margarine, Lipton Yellow Label and Knorr Cubes, continued to dominate turnover, bringing 64.3 per cent of sales to the table this time around, up from 59.8 per cent.
Increasingly, the company, which also produces personal care and beauty goods, has been looking inwards more than ever before to find local alternatives for key raw material imports, seeking shelter from the headwinds of exchange rate fluctuation, to which shipping goods from abroad is sometimes subjected.
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The company, last year, scaled up local sourcing to 60 per cent, its 2025 Sustainability Report said, as it engaged more than 10,000 farmers to bolster its value chain.
“By increasing local sourcing, manufacturing, and partnerships, we are strengthening supply security, reducing exposure to foreign exchange volatility, and creating shared value within Nigeria’s economy,” the report noted.
In the period under review, total assets fell to N177.2 billion from N180.2 billion as lower fixed deposit income depressed cash and cash equivalents by 12.3 per cent.
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