BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Asian Paints reported first-quarter earnings below estimates on Wednesday, hurt by weak demand and price cuts taken to stave off tight competition.
The paintmaker’s consolidated net profit fell 24.5% to 11.70 billion rupees ($140.1 million) for the quarter ended June 30, its biggest slide in three years.
Analysts were expecting profit of 14.04 billion rupees, as per LSEG data.
Revenue dropped 2.3% to 89.43 billion rupees, also missing analysts’ expectation of 92.81 billion rupees.
Asian Paints, like its rivals, has been grappling with customers shifting to cheaper options since the start of the year, and had cut prices to woo them back amid tightening competition following Grasim’s entry into the market.
It is the first among its peers to report quarterly results. Kansai Nerolac reports results later this month, followed by Berger Paints and Akzo Nobel in August.
Domestic revenue of the company’s key decorative paints – used to paint interior and exterior walls of houses – fell 3% on the back of discounts.
Meanwhile, its costs rose 3.5% to 75.59 billion rupees, led by a 11.4% jump in inventory costs.
“Demand conditions for the paint industry were tough, impacted by the severe heatwave and general elections in the quarter,” CEO and Managing Director Amit Syngle said in a statement.
Syngle, however, said he expects demand to improve in the near term “at the back of improving rural sentiment and monsoons picking up gradually.”
Shares of Asian Paints closed 0.6% higher on Tuesday. India’s financial markets were closed on Wednesday for a holiday.
($1 = 83.5080 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
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