(Reuters) -India’s Kansai Nerolac Paints reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, as intense competition in the sector and an extended monsoon season hit demand.
The company, owned by Japan’s Kansai Paint Co, reported a nearly 10% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to 1.35 billion rupees ($15.4 million), for the quarter ended September 30.
Analysts, on an average, had expected a profit of 1.54 billion rupees, data compiled by LSEG showed.
Revenues were little changed on-year at 19.54 billion rupees. “Overall demand in decorative (paints) was affected due to heavy and extended monsoons,” said Managing Director Pravin Chaudhari.
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KEY CONTEXT
India’s domestic paints industry has grappled with faltering retail demand, with buyers switching towards cheaper labels amid intensified competition from the entry of new players such as Grasim Industries’ Birla Opus last year.
The July-September quarter is usually seasonally weak for paintmakers, and extended monsoons further hit demand, as damp weather prompted clients to defer painting projects.
Kansai Nerolac’s results come ahead of quarterly reports from bigger rivals Asian Paints and Berger Paints.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean No. of Stock to Div
growth (%) growth (%) rating* analyst price yield
s target** (%)
Kansai Nerolac 26.86 16.79 6.72 20.25 Hold 11 0.90 1.00
Paints
Asian Paints 53.44 35.53 6.51 9.47 Hold 34 1.05 0.98
Berger Paints India 46.71 29.58 8.37 10.92 Hold 22 0.95 0.70
Akzo Nobel India 31.13 20.19 6.25 8.18 Buy 2 0.85 3.06
* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
JULY-SEPTEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Manvi Pant and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
