Asian Paints reports slower growth; profit falls 4.6%

Both frequency and number of occasions for painting of houses has tapered a bit, Amit Syngle, chief executive officer of Asian Paints, said on Tuesday.

“Weddings are a big phenomenon in India, and what we are seeing today is that there are more destination weddings happening than home weddings. So that has possibly contributed to some amount of postponement,” Syngle said on a call post the company’s quarterly earnings.

“Given that it is a discretionary trend, people are also looking at other avenues where they can defer painting and get into those kind of investments and other consumption areas,” he said.


The country’s largest paint-maker saw a 7.9% year-on-year growth in its decorative paints business in the December quarter, with a value growth of 2.8%. The boom in the travel hospitality space, meanwhile, is aiding demand in the industrial segment, he said. “The industrial sales have kind of really gone up to that extent. The whole area of B2B, which basically contributes to a certain demand, we are seeing really an uptick,” he said.

In the decorative and industrial segment combined, the Mumbai-based company saw a 8.3% year-on-year growth in volume, with a value growth of 4.4%.

While Asian Paints expects the competitive intensity to remain elevated in the current quarter, is it also optimistic of market share gains over the next 12–18 months.

“All our strategies are geared towards the fact that we would like to possibly grow to some extent higher in the market,” Syngle said in a response to an analysts’ query.

“So whether it is innovation giving us that leverage, or water-proofing or construction chemicals, or the whole B2B business we are reasonably confident in terms of doing that,” he said.

Asian Paints also recently partnered with the Board of Cricket Control in India as a colour partner for three years, and Syngle said that the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup would be important. “I think the coming series is very exciting and we will see a lot of innovations coming from our side and we promise a lot of excitement which will be around at the popular game,” he said.

October-December earnings

Asian Paints’ consolidated net profit for the quarter fell 4.6% on year to Rs 1,059.9 crore even as consolidated sales rose by 3.9% to ₹8,849.7 crore. The bottom line was impacted by an exceptional item of Rs 157.61 crore during the quarter. This included higher liabilities due to changes in labour codes and an impairment loss.

Profit before depreciation, interest, tax, other income, and exceptional items (PBDIT) for the quarter increased by 8.8% to ₹1,781 crores, while PBDIT margin as a percentage of net sales rose to 20.1% from 19.2% a year ago.