LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Consumer goods company Reckitt beat fourth-quarter like-for-like net sales growth expectations, led by strong performance in emerging markets, and said on Thursday it expected its core businesses to grow at 4% to 5% in 2026.
Along with consumer goods peers such as Nestle and Unilever, Reckitt has been finetuning its portfolio to focus on high-growth, high-margin brands and finalised the $4.8 billion divestment of its Essential Home division to private equity firm Advent
International on December 31. Reckitt has retained a 30% equity stake.
The maker of Durex condoms and Lysol cleaning products reported total group like-for-like net revenue growth of 5.4% for the quarter ended December 31, compared with 4.7% expected in a company-compiled consensus.
For the year, emerging market revenue growth of 14.6% stood out, while Europe recorded a drop of 1.4%.
Emerging markets, which account for about 42% of Reckitt's core net revenues, have now delivered 10 consecutive quarters of double-digit sales growth, Barclays analysts said.
"(Emerging Markets) is doing the heavy lifting for the group and provides a reliable growth engine at a time when developed markets category growth is sluggish," the analysts said in a note.
Reckitt said it expected the challenging trading environment in Europe to continue and warned that it expected its seasonal over-the-counter business to suffer in the first quarter of 2026 from a weaker cold and flu season.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
