GRi BEF News Ghana 19 - 04 - 2001
Unilever continues to post impressive
performance
Unilever continues to post impressive
performance
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 April 2001
Unilever Ghana Limited, a home and personal care products giant, posted an impressive 28 billion cedis profit after tax at the end of December last year, compared to 14.8 billion cedis for the same period in 1999.
The Board Chairman, Mr Ishmael E. Yamson, told shareholders at their Annual General Meeting that the company was able to make the impressive strides because of its ability to identify and meet consumers' needs at a time their purchasing power had declined due to the harsh economic conditions.
The company, he said, was also able to manage an underlying turnover growth rate of 61 per cent despite a dip in all key economic indicators and a huge depreciation that saw the cedi plunge against all foreign major currencies last year.
Turnover grew from a low of 275.5 billion cedis to a high of 442.6 billion cedis.
The company declared a dividend per share of 254 cedis to its 11,032 ordinary shareholders, amounting to 15.8 billion cedis.
Most of the shareholders were, however, unhappy about what they described as the "low dividend" paid to them.
They argued that, with the improved performance, the company should have paid them an attractive dividend to reflect the cost of their investment.
Mr Yamson attributed the huge success to a strong share growth through innovative products and the company's decision to relieve itself of all non-core business areas while concentrating on the core functions to move the business forward.
He assured the shareholders that Unilever would strive to meet all challenges that the tough operating environment would pose this year, saying: "we have a clear strategy and aggressive plan to grow the business profitably".
Mr. Yamson said the Board's promise to double the size of the company's operations in five years is on course, adding that the company in the past two years has achieved a 36 per cent growth rate.
He said all efforts would be made to explore avenues to remove obstacles and improve the supply chain to boost profit.
"We will focus on some brands and promote them aggressively to meet the expectations of our shareholders."
The company, he said, invested over 20 million US dollars in the business and a further two billion cedis in employee training and development.
As part of its social responsibility, the company paid 1.5 billion cedis to the Unilever Foundation for Education and Development, under which 30 Senior Secondary School Students were awarded scholarships.
There were also seven excellence awards to graduates of public universities and donation of ambulances to some rural clinics in the northern regions.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 April 2001
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,017.00 7,227.27
Pound Sterling 10,025.89 10,333.55
French Franc 942.24 970.66
Swiss Franc 4,052.17 4,172.98
Deutsche Mark 3,159.85 3,255.79
Canadian Dollar 4,480.84 4,615.46
Japanese Yen 57.07 58.78
Dutch Guilder 2,804.60 2,889.29
S/African Rand 865.58 890.79
Euro 6,185.38 6,368.51
CFA Franc 9.42 9.71
Naira 64.80 66.74
Ecowas/WAUA 8,924.15 --------
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