Company in the news: Unilever

Big consumer companies such as Unilever are popular with investors, says Phil Oakley. But is it worth the price?

Investors have developed a liking for consumer companies such as Unilever (LSE: ULVR). That's because branded products tend to have lots of loyal customers. This makes for reasonably predictable profits and respectable returns on assets.

And with Unilever there's supposed to be another attraction emerging markets. The company gets more than half of its sales from emerging economies and that is supposed to grow profits faster.

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Phil spent 13 years as an investment analyst for both stockbroking and fund management companies.

 

After graduating with a MSc in International Banking, Economics & Finance from Liverpool Business School in 1996, Phil went to work for BWD Rensburg, a Liverpool based investment manager. In 2001, he joined ABN AMRO as a transport analyst. After a brief spell as a food retail analyst, he spent five years with ABN's very successful UK Smaller Companies team where he covered engineering, transport and support services stocks.

 

In 2007, Phil joined Halbis Capital Management as a European equities analyst. He began writing for MoneyWeek in 2010.