Procter & Gamble Co’s quarterly revenue and profit beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, sending shares up even as the world’s No.1 personal goods company took an $8 billion writedown on its Gillette shaving business.
Boosted by price hikes and strong demand for its SK-II and Olay beauty products, P&G’s organic sales rose 7pc. Price hikes contributed 3 percentage points to organic sales growth, a closely-watched metric which excludes items like acquisitions, divestitures and currency effects. Shares rose 4pc in premarket trading.
However, P&G reported a net loss of about $5.24 billion, or $2.12 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, due to an $8 billion non-cash writedown of Gillette. For the same period last year, P&G’s net income was $1.89 billion, or 72 cents per share.
Gillette razors, gels and foams are some of P&G’s most internationally distributed products. P&G said the writedown was due primarily to foreign exchange fluctuations, increased competition and a contracting market for blades and razors as consumers in developed markets shave less frequently.
