Hindustan Unilever Profit Rose 9% Last Quarter

Hindustan Unilever Ltd., the Indian arm of Unilever PLC, reported a 9.3% rise in net profit during the fiscal first-quarter, beating analysts' estimates.

The country's largest consumer products-maker posted net profit of 12.83 billion ($199 million) rupees in the three months ended June 30, compared with 11.74 billion rupees a year earlier. That was higher than the 11.70 billion rupees estimated by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 5% to 90.94 billion rupees despite confusion over new tax rules ahead of the implementation of Goods and Services Tax from July 1. Analysts were expecting lower purchases by some distributors due to uncertainty over the availability of input tax credits under the new regime to hurt the company's revenue.

"We remain positive on the medium term outlook for the industry," said Harish Manwani, chairman of the company.

Shares of Hindustan Unilever closed 0.5% higher in a Mumbai market ahead of the results.

Write to Debiprasad Nayak at debiprasad.nayak@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2017 06:53 ET (10:53 GMT)