Asian Paints net profit jumps nearly 70%, weighs 'calibrated' price hikes

Mumbai: Asian Paints is targeting 8-10% volume growth this fiscal while looking to defend margins in the 18-20% range, chief executive officer Amit Syngle said on Friday. To maintain its profitability, the paint maker will deploy a combination of price hikes, backward integration and cost efficiencies and increased sales of premium products, he said.

Asian Paints is the country's largest paint company. It saw its volume grow by 8.7% in FY26, while consolidated sales rose by 5.1% to ₹35,516.4 crore. Profit before depreciation, interest, tax and other income (PBDIT) margins rose to 18.9% from 17.8% in the previous year. "We have already taken close to 10.5-11% kind of price increase, and will possibly look at more, going ahead," Syngle said. "We will take some calibrated increases, which we think the market can absorb."

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According to Syngle, while the impact of the West Asia crisis has been around 20% for Asian Paints, the company has hiked prices by only around 11% to ensure that demand is not impacted.

"Demand has been good, both in rural and urban centres. We expect at least some part of this demand to sustain in the market, and have been seeing some early shoots in April and May," he said.

Syngle said demand is likely to grow in the 8-10% range this year despite high competitive intensity. The company's consolidated net profit in the March quarter surged by over 69% on-year to ₹1,172.1 crore while consolidated sales rose by nearly 11% to ₹9,228.5 crore. Its PBDIT jumped by more than 24% to ₹1,786.6 crore, while PBDIT margin as a percentage to net sales rose to 19.4%, up from 17.2% a year ago.

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"Q4FY26 performance was a quarter of all-round performance, with double-digit volume and value growth and margin expansion," Syngle said. "The quarter witnessed improvement in the domestic decorative business, with the business delivering a 12.4% growth in volume and 10.2% growth in value terms," he said. Asian Paints has also announced a dividend of ₹23 per share for the year.