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1 Unilever Annual Report on Form 20-F 1999
Contents
Cross reference to Form 20-F 2
Report of the Directors
Financial highlights 3
Chairmen’s statement 4-5
Selected financial data 6-10
About Unilever 11-12
Performance review 13
1999/98 14-25
1998/97 26-34
Financial review 35-38
Operating review 39-42
Corporate governance 43-48
Remuneration report 49-59
Financial Statements
Unilever N.V. (NV) is a public limited company registered in
the Netherlands which has listings of shares or certificates
(depositary receipts) of NV on the stock exchanges in
Amsterdam, London and New York and in Belgium,
France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Unilever PLC (PLC) is a public limited company registered
in England which has shares listed on the London Stock
Exchange and, as American Depositary Receipts, on
the New York Stock Exchange.
The two parent companies, NV and PLC, operate as nearly
as is practicable as a single entity, together referred to as
the Group or the Unilever Group. NV and PLC and their
group companies constitute a single group under
Netherlands and United Kingdom legislation for the
purposes of presenting consolidated accounts.
Accordingly, the accounts of the Unilever Group are
presented by both NV and PLC as their respective
consolidated accounts.
This report is the Unilever Annual Report on Form 20-F
to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United
States of America for the year ended 31 December 1999.
There are two versions, expressed in guilders for NV and
pounds sterling for PLC.
Statement of directors’ responsibilities 60
Report of independent auditors 61
Accounting information
and policies 62-65
Consolidated profit and loss account
and Statement of total recognised
gains and losses 66
Consolidated balance sheet 67
Consolidated cash flow statement 68
Notes to the consolidated accounts 69-104
Schedules – Unilever Group 105
Key divergence statements from
United States GAAP 106
Differences from United States GAAP 107
Principal group companies and fixed
investments 108-110
Company accounts 111-117
Shareholder Information
Control of Unilever 118-121
Analysis of shareholding 122
Information about exchange controls
affecting security holders 122
Nature of the trading market 123
Taxation for US residents 124-125
Dividends 126
Signature 126
Financial calendar and addresses 127
Publications 128
Web site 128
The brand names shown in italics in this Form 20-F are
trade marks owned by or licensed to companies within
the Unilever Group.
In addition, there is the Unilever Annual Report &
Accounts for the year ended 31 December 1999, which
is produced as two separate documents – the Unilever
Annual Review 1999 and the Unilever Annual Accounts
1999. These documents comply with the Netherlands and
the United Kingdom regulations. Both documents are
made available to all shareholders but, unless they have
elected to receive the full Annual Report & Accounts, only
the Annual Review document is mailed to them.
There are three versions of both these documents:
– figures expressed in guilders, in Dutch;
– figures expressed in pounds sterling, in English;
– figures expressed in guilders, in English.
The effect of exchange rate fluctuations over time may
result in the trends shown in the guilder accounts differing
significantly from those shown in the sterling accounts.