Rentokil posted a 22% fall in firstquarter profit last week as European demand weakened.

A turnaround plan won't revive earnings before next year, Rentokil said.

Pretax profit fell to 64m from 82m a year earlier.

Rentokil chief executive Doug Flynn has sold a conferencing unit and is exiting manned guarding as competition from rivals such as Mitie Group reduce prices.

"It's still a long, hard slog, " said Andrew Darke, an analyst at Williams de Broe in London, which has a 'sell' rating on the stock.

"There's not a huge amount of evidence of recovery."

For now, any investment in Rentokil is "dead money", he said.

However, Flynn, who has resisted a wholesale breakup of Rentokil since taking charge in April last year, said the first-quarter revenue boost should pave the way for future earnings growth.

Unilever Price Unilever reported first-quarter sales growth last week that lagged behind analysts' estimates.

Revenue increased 2.9%, while analysts forecast a gain of 3.9%.

Net income climbed to /1.44bn from /1.36bn a year earlier.

Stock reductions by US stores knocked about one percentage point off sales growth in that country during the first quarter, Unilever reported.

Similarly, Procter & Gamble, the largest US consumer goods company, posted lower-thanexpected revenue last week.

"Unilever's first quarter looks bleak and growth is not picking up as quickly as we had hoped, " said Paul Linssen, an analyst at Petercam in Amsterdam. The sales growth Unilever reported is slower than competitors including Nestle and Group Danone.