How Unilever N.V. (ADR) (UL) Will Deliver Its Dividend

LONDON — I’m looking at some of your favorite FTSE 100 companies and examining how each will deliver their dividends.

Today, I’m putting Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UL) under the microscope.

Dividend policy
Soon after Paul Polman took over as chief executive in January 2009, Unilever announced a new dividend policy to run from 2010 onward: “Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UL)’s policy is to seek to pay an attractive, sustainable and growing dividend to shareholders.”

The company said it would move from paying an interim and final dividend each year to paying four quarterly dividends, announced with the quarterly results. It added that the change would “better align the payments with the cash flow generation of the business.”

Dividend delivery
The table below shows the extent to which Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UL) has grown its dividend since the move to quarterly payouts. It should be noted that the company’s reporting currency is the euro. Thus, the euro dividend is the gauge for measuring performance against policy, while the sterling dividend is at the mercy — for better or worse — of prevailing exchange rates.

*Adjusted for change to quarterly dividends.

Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UL) has delivered a growing dividend — nicely ahead of inflation — for euro and sterling investors alike, even though exchange rates have worked against the latter during the most recent two years.

What about the “sustainable” aspect of Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UL)’s dividend policy? Let’s have a look at free cash flow (FCF). This is the amount of surplus cash generated by a company, available for dividends or other discretionary uses, and is a more difficult number for companies to “massage” than earnings. The table below shows FCF, gross dividends paid, and how many times the dividend is covered by FCF.

As you can see, Unilever’s dividend has been comfortably covered by FCF. This means that there’s also room for the company to up capital expenditure when required, as in 2011 when management invested in new capacity to support volume growth in emerging markets.