Unilever's India unit tops Q2 profit view on strong urban demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's Hindustan Unilever (HUL) reported a bigger-than-expected increase in quarterly profit on Thursday as the company benefited from increased sales from its beauty, home, and personal care segments.

The Indian unit of UK's Unilever reported a 3.9% rise in profit to 27.17 billion rupees ($326.5 million)for the three months to September 30 from a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 26.01 billion rupees, per LSEG data.

The Dove soap maker said its underlying sales within home care, and beauty and personal care (BPC) segments grew 3% and 4% respectively. HUL makes soaps, toothpaste, tea and biscuits under brands such as Lipton, Pepsodent, and Lifebuoy.

The company, however, said volume growth within its food and refreshment business declined in the mid-single digits.

Demand in urban centres made up for subdued rural buying, hamstrung by high inflation through the last year.

"Demand is likely to continue a gradual recovery with tailwinds from the upcoming festive season, sustained buoyancy of services and government's thrust on capex," Chief Executive Rohit Jawa said in a statement.

Parent Unilever will report its third-quarter results on October 26.

Earlier in the day, Maggi instant noodles-maker Nestle India posted a third-quarter profit beat, while tobacco-to-hotels conglomerate ITC is expected to report later.

Shares of HUL ended unchanged ahead of its results, taking its year-to-date loss to 0.5%. In comparison, the Nifty FMCG index rose nearly 19% from last year.

($1 = 83.2212 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)