Unilever (LON: ULVR) have seen their shares in red, as it gave shareholders a gloomy outlook for their annual results.
Unilever have seen a turbulent time of trading in 2019. In October, the firm saw its growth slump in both India and China, which alerted shareholders.
Unilever revealed an underlying sales growth of 2.9%, with 1.4% from volume and 1.5% from price. Meanwhile, turnover grew by 5.8% driven by sales growth.
Just a month on, the firm made a new Chairman appointment in Nils Andersen.
Andersen was brought into the firm to tackle the slowdown in Indian and Chinese business, having had experience working with AP Moller Maerskv , Carlsberg A/S and as a non executive director at BP.
Unilever today have seen their shares crash, as the firm reported that underlying sales growth will fall short of guidance due to economic slowdown in South Asia and tough trading conditions in West Africa.
The FTSE 100 listed firm initially had expected underlying sales growth in the lower half of its 3% to 5% multi-year range. However, it now expects underlying sales “slightly below” this guidance.
The main reason that Unilever alluded to this change was the challenges in the quarter in some markets”, including continued trouble in west African markets and a slowdown in south Asia, one of Unilever’s biggest markets.
Chief Executive Alan Jope said: “Due to challenges in certain markets, we expect a slight miss to our full year underlying sales growth delivery.
“Looking ahead to 2020, growth will be second-half weighted. While we expect improvement in H1 2020 versus this quarter, we expect that first half growth will be below 3%. Our full year underlying sales growth is expected to be in the lower half of the multi-year range.
“Growth remains our top priority and we are confident we have the right strategy and investment in place to step up our performance.”
Shares in Unilever crashed 5.03% to 4,397p on the announcement. 17/12/19 11:03BST.
