This summary is based on the third quarter fiscal 2007 earnings call conducted by Unilever NV. (UN: chart) on November 1, 2007.

Management:

Chief Financial Officer: Jim Lawrence
Senior Vice President of Investor Relations: John Rothenberg
Vice President of Investor Relations: Charles Nichols

Key Investors Issues

- Sales were up 1.2% to €10.2 billion.
- Net income rose 31% to €1.1 billion or €0.34 a share.
- An interim dividend of €0.25 per NV share and 17.00p per PLC share was declared.

Year-to-date Highlights

- Sales rose marginally to €30.3 billion from €29.9 billion in the prior year.
- Earnings per share from continuing operations were up 20% to €1.07 a share, with an increased contribution from joint ventures and associates, lower financing costs, and a lower tax rate.
- Cash and cash equivalents were flat at €1.3 billion.

Third Quarter Highlights

Sales were €10.2 billion, 1.2% ahead of €10.12 billion realised in 2006 despite a 0.9% impact from disposals and an adverse currency effect of 2.3%, reflecting the strengthening of the reporting currency, the euro, against a wide range of currencies.

- Underlying sales growth was 4.5% in line with a steady increase in pricing.
- Sales growth in Europe was under 2% with the performance across Southern European markets and in Central and Eastern Europe remaining strong, with Russia, in particular, continuing to grow in the high teens.
- Performance in the main Northern European markets has been more varied, with some underlying improvement in France and Germany, but continued weakness in the United Kingdom.
- Sales were especially impacted by a sharp decline in Ice Cream caused by poor weather across Northern Europe, lowering underlying sales growth in the whole region by around 200 basis points to 0.7%.

Volumes in Europe are up 2.5%, but pricing remains negative, despite price increases in a number of categories, most notably in Spreads, Dressings and Savory, and further increases are in the pipeline.

- The firm has responded to a step-up in competitor promotional activity in a number of markets and together with substantially lower olive oil prices, has led to a small overall price reduction.
- The Americas region grew by 2.8% being impacted by the €70 million of sales pull-forward in the United States, and as yet there is little sign of a slowdown in U.S. consumer demand affecting the business.
- The company has seen good growth in the U.S. across all foods categories other than Ice Cream, in Personal Care and in Laundry.
- Aggressive pricing action in some of the categories has positively impacted volumes, most notably in Personal Wash and Ice Cream.

Latin America had a slightly stronger quarter driven by better growth in Mexico as Brazil continued to be a difficult market following challenges from local competition in several categories, especially tomato products.

- The firm raised prices in Hair, which triggered some trade de-stocking, though other Latin American markets continued to grow strongly.
- Asia/Africa remains a major driver of growth, rising by over 11% including a contribution from pricing of over 3%.
- Growth remains broad based, with all large categories growing strongly and with double-digit growth in most key markets, including India, China, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey.
- The growth across Asia/Africa is a reflection of the portfolio strategy, which is focusing resources on markets, which offer the best growth opportunities and where the firm has a competitive advantage.
- Overall, developing and emerging markets now represent 44% of total sales, growing at 10%.

Operating margin in was 13.7%, 1.1 percentage points lower than the prior year, due to higher restructuring costs and lower proceeds from disposals.

- The firm has continued to spend competitively behind its brands, and increased investments in advertising promotion in line with sales growth.
- The combined benefits of volume mix, positive pricing and cost savings were more than sufficient to offset rising commodity prices and other cost increases.
- The significantly lower Ice Cream sales in Europe had an adverse impact on operating margin.
- There has been a sharp increase in commodity related costs equivalent to an on-cost of €260 million or 250 basis points, though there has been some reductions in olive oil and tea.

Price increases will continue to be mitigated through a combination of pricing action, forward covers, product reformulations and savings.

- Savings programs are also accelerating, reaching €260 million, with increased contributions from both buying savings and overheads reductions.
- A total of €234 million of restructuring was charged, bringing the year-to-date total to nearly €475 million, signalling progress being made in the change program.

Net profit was up 31% from €812 million or €0.24 a share in 2006 to €1.1 billion or €0.43 a share on strong sales growth and underlying margin enhancement despite increased restructuring charges, lower proceeds from disposals and adverse currency movements.

- Net financing costs, excluding the preference share provision, were 42% lower, through a reduced level of net debt and a better funding position on pensions.
- The share in net profit from joint ventures has increased by 60% to €82 million for the year to date, mainly driven by the strong growth in the partnerships between Lipton and Pepsi for ready-to-drink tea.
- The €88 million for associates and non-current investments was boosted by a gain in the first quarter in one of the firm’s venture capital funds.