UNILEVER HAS IMPROVED MARGINS, VOLUMES IN 1986

  Unilever Plc &lt;UN.A> and NV group reported
  improvements in margins and underlying sales volume growth of
  five pct in 1986 after stripping out the effects of falling
  prices, disposals and currency movements, Unilever Plc chairman
  Michael Angus said.
      He told reporters that volumes in North America increased
  some 10.5 pct while European consumer goods rose about 2.5 pct
  after being flat for some years.
      Much of the disposal strategy, aimed at concentrating
  activities on core businesses, had now been completed, he
  noted.
      But the process of acquisitions would go on, with strategic
  acquisitions taking place "from time to time," he said.
      The company earlier reported a 20 pct rise in pre-tax
  profits for 1986 to 1.14 billion stg from 953 mln previously.
  In guilder terms, however, profits at the pre-tax level dropped
  three pct to 3.69 billion from 3.81 billion.
      Angus said the recent purchase of Chesebrough-Pond's Inc
  &lt;CBM.N> for 72.50 dlrs a share was unlikely to bring any
  earnings dilution.
      However, it would not add much to profits, with much of the
  company's operating profits paying for the acquisition costs.
      Finance director Niall Fitzgerald added that while gearing
  - debt to equity plus debt - rose to about 60 pct at end 1986
  from 35 pct last year, this was expected to drop back to about
  40 pct by end-1987.
      The same divergence was made in full year dividend, with
  Unilever NV's rising 3.4 pct to 15.33 guilders and Unilever
  Plc's increasing 29.9 pct to 50.17p, approximately in line with
  the change in attributable profit.
      Angus said the prospectus for the sale of parts of
  Chesebrough was due to be published shortly. However, he said
  that there was no target date for completing the process.
      He also declined to say what sort of sum Unilever hoped to
  realise from the operation, beyond noting that Chesebrough had
  paid around 1.25 billion dlrs for Stauffer Chemical Co, which
  operates outside Unilever's core activities.
      In the U.S., Organic growth from the Lipton Foods business,
  considerable expansion in the household products business and
  in margarine had been behind the overall sales increase.
      However, he noted that the U.S. Household products business
  had turned in a planned loss, with fourth quarter performance
  better than expected despite the anticipated heavy launch costs
  of its Surf detergents.
  

