Household products maker, Procter & Gamble, yesterday said second-quarter profit rose 4 per cent before unusual charges. It beat Wall Street forecasts, as price increases, tax gains and the divestiture of its Clearasil business offset higher raw material costs.
The US maker of everything from soap to soap operas, which employs more than 500 people at its Irish plant in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, also said it was comfortable with the high end of analysts' earnings estimates for the full fiscal year.
The company said earnings for the second quarter to the end of December last were $1.31 billion, or 93 US cents per diluted share, up from $1.26 billion, or 88 US cents a share, a year earlier. The results for both years exclude restructuring charges.
Analysts on average had expected the company to earn 92 US cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks such estimates.
Overall, second-quarter revenue fell 4 per cent, to $10.18 billion from $10.59 billion a year earlier, as the weak euro cut into sales. Unit volume fell 2 per cent compared with record levels a year ago.
