Food and consumer products giant Unilever Thursday posted soaring 2017 profits of 6.5 billion euros ($8.05 billion), after a year of "major change" when it spurned a Kraft Heinz takeover bid.

Net profit leaped 16.9 percent on sales of 53.7 billion euros, up 1.9 percent year-on-year, which chief executive Paul Polman said "demonstrates the progress we have made in transforming Unilever into a more resilient and more agile business'.

"We have delivered a good all-round performance with competitive growth,” he said in a statement.

The Rotterdam-based Unilever, which employs some 169,000 people around the world, owns more than 400 household brands including Dove, Knorr soups, Lipton, Magnum and Marmite.

Since rejecting the bid by its US rival Kraft Heinz in February 2017, Unilever has sought to prove to shareholders that it is better off on its own and vowed better profitability.

In April, it unveiled a 3.5-billion euro restructuring plan and announced the spinoff of its margarine division, hoping to soothe investors concerns after rejecting the proposed tie-up with Kraft which would have valued the group at $ 143 billion.

The company said Thursday that after agreeing "to sell our global spreads business ... we expect to exit around the middle of 2018".

Excluding spreads, sales reached 50.7 billion euros, an increase of 2.2 percent over the previous 12 months.

Unilever is listed in both London and on the Amsterdam AEX, an historic status which the company is also reviewing.