By Hritam Mukherjee
(Reuters) -India’s Asian Paints said on Thursday demand conditions were at their worst in decades and unlikely to improve in the near term, as the market leader grapples with rising competition and weak buyer spending.
The company missed estimates for fourth-quarter profit and reported a drop in sales, adding to a slate of disappointing earnings through fiscal 2025 from India’s biggest paintmaker by market share.
Indian paintmakers are facing sluggish retail demand as consumers shift toward cheaper, local brands, while new entrant Grasim Industries is also threatening the foothold of established players such as Asian Paints.
“As we see it, over last two decades, (we have) possibly not seen such demand conditions in the industry,” said CEO Amit Syngle.
“Currently given overall environment … (we) do not see acceleration in demand.”
The company’s net profit dropped 45% to 6.92 billion rupees ($81.04 million) for the January-March quarter, missing analysts’ average estimate of 10.84 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.
Its sales fell 4.3% on-year, hurt by price cuts taken to woo back buyers.
Asian Paints also incurred a one-time expense of 1.83 billion rupees, which includes losses from the sale of its operations in Indonesia.
Its shares closed 1.4% lower.
The company posted volume growth of nearly 2% in its domestic decorative segment — which includes paints, waterproofing coatings, and wood finishes — and contributes nearly 90% of its overall revenue.
Pre-earnings estimates from at least three brokerages projected the company’s quarterly volume growth would range between 1% and 6%.
Earlier this week, smaller peer Kansai Nerolac posted a surprise quarterly profit drop.
($1 = 85.3900 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Devika Syamnath)
