...Change in Financial Policy: Unilever NV/PLC's management has reset its financial policy and is now targeting a net debt/EBITDA of 2.0x (which compares to an average 1.3x-1.4x recorded over 2013-2016 and corresponds to a FFO net leverage of 2.9x versus an average 2.1x over the last four years), but Fitch Ratings expects it to continue to operate the business prudently. In our base case, we only factor in the announced shareholder return of EUR5 billion in 2017, which would lead to FFO-adjusted net leverage peaking above 2.5x. Any further disbursements funded with debt and causing FFO-adjusted net leverage to remain permanently above 2.5x could be negative for the ratings. FMCG Industry-Leading Organic Growth: We continue to expect Unilever's revenue growth to be in the 3%-5% range and for the EBITDA margin to improve to around 18.5% by 2019. The opportunity for growth continues to lie in Unilever's emerging markets business, with accelerated growth being driven by recovering macroeconomic...
