By Alexander Marrow
LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Magnum Ice Cream’s shares fell sharply on Thursday after the company reported a 48.4% drop in full-year net profit and lower-than-expected sales growth in its first set of results since a spin-off from Unilever in December.
Magnum’s Amsterdam listing has been seen as a test of its ability to boost sales of its Cornetto cones and Ben & Jerry’s ice creams at a time when GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are reshaping consumer tastes and as the Trump administration promotes a “Make America Healthy Again” campaign in the U.S.
Magnum’s shares, which had risen around 30% since the December listing, are on course for their steepest one-day drop since then, down around 15% at 1130 GMT.
“The spin-off from Unilever meant the results were always likely to be messy with one-off costs associated with the split,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. “However, investors were still unimpressed by the big drop in annual profit and cash flow.”
VOLUME AND SALES GROWTH UNDERWHELM, MARGINS FALL
Magnum CEO Peter ter Kulve played down the share price slide and said the separation made the results hard to interpret.
“Shares go up and down,” he told journalists after the earnings. “Overall, we are very pleased with how the Magnum share price has developed.”
Net profit fell 48.4% to 307 million euros ($364 million) last year from 595 million euros in 2024, the firm said in a statement. Revenue was largely flat at 7.9 billion euros, and ter Kulve pointed to improving sales and volume growth.
But volumes and like-for-like sales growth missed expectations, JPMorgan said in a note. The bank expects consensus estimates for Magnum’s 2026 adjusted EBITDA margin to be cut to around 16% from 16.8% as Magnum delivered 15.9% margins for 2025, a 100-basis-point drop on 2024.
Magnum maintained its 2026 outlook for organic sales growth of 3% to 5% and underlying margin improvement.
Free cash flow slumped to 38 million euros in 2025 from 803 million euros the year before. Magnum attributed that to significant outflows related to the demerger and other related costs.
As part of the separation, Magnum’s net debt increased sharply to almost 3 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8428 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow. Additional reporting by Paolo Laudani. Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)
