The announcement came as the company based in Vevey, Switzerland, reported that net profit fell nearly 16 percent to 7.18 billion Swiss francs ($7.7 billion) last year, compared with 8.53 billion in 2016. Revenues edged up 0.4 percent to 89.8 billion francs, while underlying profit rose 4.6 percent to 3.55 billion francs. CEO Mark Schneider acknowledged that organic sales growth came in "below our expectations" following "weak sales development" toward year-end. Schneider said Nestle's markets in North America and Brazil faced a "challenging environment" while sales growth was "encouraging" in Europe and Asia. Nestle said, however, that it does not currently plan to boost its stake in L'Oreal.

Source: ABC News February 15, 2018 07:40 UTC