Procter and Gamble profits dive
Procter & Gamble’s quarterly profit plunged 49 per cent, as the world’s largest household products maker wrote down the value of its appliance and salon professional products businesses.
Meanwhile it said this year’s profit would come in lower than previously expected due to the strong dollar.
Excluding charges, core earnings per share fell three per cent to $1.10, as sales growth and cost cuts were not enough to offset double-digit increases in commodity costs.
P&G earned $1.69bn, or 57 cents per share, in the second quarter ended in December, down from $3.33bn, or $1.11 per share, a year earlier.
Sales rose four per cent to $22.14bn.
Organic sales, which strip out the impact of acquisitions, asset sales and currency fluctuations, rose in each business unit and were up four per cent overall.
The volume of goods sold rose one per cent, with strong growth in developing markets overtaking a decline in volume in developed regions.
It said fiscal 2012 sales should rise three per cent to four per cent on a net basis and four per cent to five per cent on an organic basis.