HUL falls 5% after GSK sells stake via block deals

GSK Consumer shareholders got 439 HUL shares for every 100 GSK Consumers shares following Unilever's acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline’s health food and drinks portfolio in December 2018.

GSK’s impending sale was among the many factors that dragged HUL's stock price of late. Over the last month, the stock has fallen around 23 percent after hitting a record high of Rs 2,614 on April 8. The other reasons for the slide were lower revenues due to the nationwide lockdown, expensive valuations of 64 times one-year forward earnings, and some profit booking after a stellar 54 percent rise over the 12 last months.

For the March quarter, HUL reported a 3.93 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in net profit at Rs 1,520 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31. In the corresponding quarter last year, the company posted a net profit of Rs 1,538 crore.

Its sales during the quarter under review slipped 9.61 percent to 9,055 crore, as against Rs 10,018 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) said in a regulatory filing.

"The spread of COVID-19 impacted the business from mid-March, which culminated into scaling down of operations post the national lockdown. Domestic Consumer Growth declined by 9 percent with a decline of 7 percent in underlying volume growth. Reported EBITDA margin reduced by 40 basis points," said HUL.