Reckitt quarterly sales beat estimates on boost from hygiene products

The company has benefitted during the pandemic from people buying more cleaning products, besides cold and flu remedies like Lemsip and Strepsils

Britain's Reckitt Benckiser Group beat fourth-quarter sales forecasts on Thursday after fears of COVID-19 led to increased demand for its cleaning products.

However, the maker of Lysol disinfectant and Durex condoms missed full-year earnings estimates, joining rivals in struggling with higher raw material and supply chain costs.

Reckitt did not give separate fourth-quarter earnings data.

The company said it was targeting like-for-like net revenue growth of 1-4% for 2022.

That came after revenues on the same basis rose 3.3% in the final quarter of 2021, ahead of the 1.9% growth expected by analysts in a company-supplied poll.

The results and forecast exclude revenue from Reckitt's infant nutrition business in China, the sale of which was announced in June, and other businesses sold or acquired recently

The company, whose stock has risen about 13% in the past year, has benefited during the pandemic from people buying more cleaning products as well as cold and flu remedies such as Lemsip and Strepsils.

Sales at its hygiene business - which includes Lysol - rose 17.5% in the quarter as more U.S. shoppers rushed to buy cleaning products amid the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Still, the higher sales were not enough to help Reckitt overcome soaring raw material and supply chain costs.

Full-year adjusted earnings fell 11.8% to 288.5 pence per share, missing analysts' average forecast of 289.9 pence.

"We are targeting both growth in like-for-like net revenue and an increase in adjusted operating margin in 2022, despite an unprecedented inflationary environment and ongoing uncertainties created by COVID," Chief Executive Laxman Narasimhan said on a media call.