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Vevey - Swiss food and drinks giant Nestle reported a 69% increase in full-year net profit on Thursday thanks to a windfall from the sale of a stake in eyecare company Alcon.
The company said net profit increased to 18 billion Swiss francs ($16.61bn), helped by a gain of 9.2 billion francs from the sale of a 24.8% share in Alcon to Swiss-based drugmaker Novartis.
Excluding the Alcon deal, Nestle's net profit would have dropped.
Nestle, whose brands include Nescafe, Perrier, Jenny Craig and Haagen Dazs, said full-year sales increased by 2.2% to 109.9 billion francs - slightly below analyst estimates.
The strength of the Swiss franc compared to other currencies reduced group sales by 7.8%, Nestle said.
Sales in Europe and in its global bottled water business dropped slightly, while the rest of the world and Nestle's nutrition unit saw sales increase.
"The group's results in 2008 are broad-based, demonstrate its intrinsic strength and provide momentum into 2009," chief executive Paul Bulcke said in a statement.
"Nestle's ability to capitalise on a wide variety of market conditions across the world remains one of its decisive competitive advantages," he added.
Bulcke said Nestle aims to achieve at least 5% organic growth in 2009.
Nestle declined on Thursday to provide details on its future relationship with cosmetics company L'Oreal, in which it holds more than a quarter stake.
Nestle cannot sell its stake before April 29, when its share lock-up agreement with L'Oreal expires.
- AP
