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onsumer goods giant PT Unilever Indonesia has booked stagnant profit growth amid rising revenue as of the third quarter of this year, after being heavily affected by surging operational costs.

The company, the shares of which are traded on the stock market under the code UNVR, pocketed Rp 26.09 trillion (US$2.2 million) in net sales during the first nine months of this year, a 13 percent increase from Rp 23.03 trillion year-on-year (y-o-y), according to its financial report published Thursday.

The firm'€™s net profit of Rp 4.05 trillion in the January-September period of this year, however, was only slightly different from last year'€™s Rp 4.09 trillion in the same period.

Higher operational costs were the main reason behind the pressure on Unilever'€™s bottom line, as the costs soared 19.5 percent to Rp 13.4 trillion from Rp 11.2 trillion during the period, with raw material costs surging almost 24 percent to Rp 11.9 trillion from only Rp 9.6 trillion last year.

UNVR, which produces various personal and home care products, consumes a large amount of crude palm oil (CPO) and chemical substances, the prices of which are much affected by currency volatility.

Although CPO prices in general have been on a downward trend this year, depreciation of the rupiah has exposed companies buying the commodities to currency risks.

'€œThere are a number of products that we buy in rupiah [but we] are still affected by foreign currency. One of them is CPO,'€ UNVR external relations director and corporate secretary Sancoyo Antarikso said previously.

Indonesia'€™s benchmark price for CPO is currently based on a composite price from those of Indonesia, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and is in US dollars.

Sancoyo said Unilever had been hedging all of its foreign currency debts to avoid any further losses.

David Sutyanto, an analyst with First Asia Capital, said UNVR had actually performed very well with the 13 percent growth, given that the company was a mature entity.

'€œIts profit dropped because of common things like currency exchange rates as well as rising costs and employees'€™ salaries,'€ he said.

UNVR'€™s profit also dropped because its customers may have shifted to competitors'€™ products due to rising prices of its products, he added.

'€œHowever, once everything stabilizes, I am upbeat that the firm'€™s sales will grow by about 15 percent next year,'€ David said.

While UNVR'€™s outlook remains good in the country, its parent company, Unilever NV and Plc recorded disappointing results in its global sales.

Unilever reported the slowest third-quarter revenue growth in five years as its main growth engine, personal care products, sputtered amid a sharp drop-off in China, Bloomberg reported.

The London- and Rotterdam-based company booked 2.1 percent in its underlying sales in the first nine months this year, below analysts'€™ projection of 3.9 percent.

In emerging markets such as India and Indonesia, which account for nearly 57 percent of Unilever'€™s sales, the company grew by 5.6 percent, slower than 6.6 percent growth in the first half.

The figure is also below the 12 percent growth in the same period two years ago.

Shares in UNVR dropped 2.58 percent on the day that third quarter earnings were announced on Thursday to Rp 31,200 apiece. The blue-chip stocks have gained 20 percent so far this year, almost similar to the broader Jakarta Composite Index gauge'€™s advance.

Anggi M. Lubis contributed to this story.