(Reuters) – Paints maker Akzo Nobel India reported a 4% rise in its second-quarter profit on Thursday, mainly driven by a higher demand from the automotive sector, which helped outweigh muted retail demand.
The maker of Dulux Paints said its consolidated net profit rose to 979 million rupees ($11.61 million) in the July-September quarter, from 942 million rupees a year ago.
Revenue from operations rose 3% to 9.82 billion rupees.
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KEY CONTEXT
Akzo Nobel’s results are in contrast to weak quarterly earnings among its peers, following higher rainfall and price hikes.
Peer Berger Paints India reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly profit earlier this week.
Paint makers hiked prices in the second quarter, as domestic competition intensified with Grasim Industries’ entry into the sector earlier this year.
India also saw higher-than-normal rainfall, leading to flooding and lacklustre demand for paints in key markets.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
12 months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean No. of Stock to Div
growth (%) growth (%) rating* analyst price yield
s target** (%)
Berger Paints India 48.39 30.50 8.59 7.22 Sell 19 1.03 0.65
Asian Paints 52.89 36.07 7.53 1.53 Hold 34 1.02 1.13
Kansai Nerolac 29.61 18.95 7.60 18.80 Hold 11 0.89 0.88
Paints
Indigo Paints 46.18 27.22 14.84 12.92 Buy 6 1.05 0.21
* 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 IBES
($1 = 84.3340 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aleef Jahan; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
