UN Unilever NV

Unilever PLC (UN, UL) Thursday posted a yearly acceleration in sales growth, driven by volume gains in its emerging markets and the world's third-largest maker of branded household products said it expects price rises to lift margins to the end of the year.

"We have delivered another quarter of solid progress driven by our emerging markets business which again reported high levels of volume growth," Chief Executive Paul Polman said in a statement.

The Anglo-Dutch maker of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Knorr soup and Bertolli olive oil and household products such as Dove, Lynx and Cif, said underlying sales--which strip out acquisitions, disposals and currency movements--grew 3.6% in the third quarter, below analysts' expectations of 3.7%. This measure of sales, which compares with 3.4% growth in the same period a year earlier and a 3.6% rise in the previous three months, is closely watched as a directly comparable measure of how the company's products are selling.

Underlying volumes rose 4.8%, compared with 3.6% a year earlier, and 5.7% in the previous quarter.

Unilever's total sales rose 13.2% to EUR11.5 billion from EUR10.2 billion, while net profit rose 21% to EUR1.3 billion from EUR1.05 billion and operating margin was up 20 basis points.

In August, the London and Rotterdam-based group--which sells products in 170 countries and competes with U.S.-based market leader Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) and Switzerland's Nestle SA (NESN.VX)--met expectations with second-half top and bottom line growth, but also cautioned it expects economic growth to slow in the second half, particularly in developed markets.

Unilever's shares closed Wednesday at 1822 pence, valuing the company at GBP51.3 billion.

By Simon Zekaria, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842-9410; simon.zekaria@dowjones.com

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