Unilever sales growth picks up after spat

Sales growth accelerated at Unilever in the third quarter as the Anglo-Dutch consumer group increased prices to offset higher commodity costs. Pinar Ergun, an analyst at UBS, said the results would "Revive the debate on whether Unilever can sustainably strike the right balance" between raising prices and protecting volumes. Unilever needs to be able to raise prices to offset rising commodity costs on everything from petrol to plastics, but it must ensure it does not do too much, too fast, or volumes will suffer. Concern about volumes sent Unilever shares down about 2 per cent on Thursday morning, compared with a flat FTSE index. On a valuation basis, Unilever trades at 18.8 times forward earnings, which is lower than market leader Nestlé's 19.3 times but ahead of Procter & Gamble's 18 times and Danone's 16.2 times, according to Bloomberg data.

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