The food and household products group said that net profit for the three months to September had increased by 26-percent to 1.474 billion euros (1.768 billion dollars) from the figure for the same period of 2004 because of a gain of 448 million euros from the sale of its UCI cosmetics business.
The group said that its performance had also been set back by continuing problems for its ice cream business in Europe and increased energy and raw material costs arising from high oil prices. Cost-cutting had absorbed some of the impact, it said.
Underlying results, which exclude the asset sale, showed that current net profit had declined by 11.0 percent to 1.0 billion euros from 1.150 billion euros in the third quarter of 2004.
Chief executive Patrick Cescau said in a statement: "Europe remains difficult and we have not yet made the progress in restoring growth that we have elsewhere."
Ice cream sales in Europe "declined markedly" over the quarter, Unilever said, echoing a similar statement made after the summer of 2004.
On the London stock exchange, the price of Unilever shares was showing a fall of 4.66 percent to 522 pence. On the Amsterdam stock exchange, the price of shares fell 4.57 percent to 56.40 euros. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares was 0.63 percent higher.
Unilever, which makes Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Knorr sauces and Dove soap, and also cleaning products, said that its operating margin had fallen to 15.6 percent in the quarter from 17.0 percent in the third quarter of 2004 "as a result of a higher level of advertising and promotional support for our brands".
At the end of the second quarter, Cescau had warned that Unilever would have to continuing investing in its business to boost sales growth and halt the decline in overall market share. Over a range of products, the company is facing fierce competition from rivals such as US giant Procter and Gamble and Germany's Henkel at a time when food and consumer goods producers are being squeezed by supermarket clients.
Other figures given by the company showed that operating profit had contracted by 4.0 percent to 1.594 billion euros from 1.662 billion euros, while sales rose by 4.0 percent to 10.2 billion euros. Underlying sales growth was 3.5 percent, less than a 3.8-percent increase forecast by financial analysts and about half the growth rate recently reported by Swiss rival Nestle.
Unilever had posted a fall in profits last year and has faced difficult conditions in 2005 despite a vast restructuring plan undertaken over the last few years that has reduced the number of its brands by about two thirds to 400. The group is now focused on a smaller number of leading brands such as Magnum ice cream, Dove soap, Knorr sauces and Lipton tea drinks.