Unilever falls as it lowers annual guidance

The price of shares in FTSE 100 consumer goods giant Unilever (LON:ULVR) has dropped by 6.74% to 4,318.50p (as of 14:45 GMT) after it said that underlying sales for 2019 would be slightly below its guidance range. The company said that there had been challenges in South Asian markets and West African trading conditions remained difficult.

CEO Alan Jope commented: “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“.