India's Kansai Nerolac quarterly profit plunges on one-time charge, higher expenses

Berger Paints India

03/02/2026 14:38

Feb 3 (Reuters) - India's Kansai Nerolac Paints KANE.NS reported an 82% fall in quarterly profit on Tuesday, weighed down by higher expenses and a one-time charge of 447.2 million rupees linked to the country's new labour laws.

The paint manufacturer, owned by Japan’s Kansai Paint Co 4613.T, reported a consolidated net profit of 1.21 billion rupees ($13.41 million) for the quarter ended December 31, down from 6.81 billion rupees a year ago, when it had recorded a one-time gain of 6.3 billion rupees primarily from a land parcel sale.

The company's revenue from operations for the quarter rose 3% to 19.82 billion rupees, while expenses rose 3.5% to 18.11 billion rupees.

"The positive effect of the GST rate cuts done towards the end of September has led to good demand... but overall demand conditions remained subdued for decorative paints, in addition to a shorter festival season," said Kansai Nerolac Managing Director Pravin Chaudhari.

For further earnings highlights, click here. (FULL STORY)

KEY CONTEXT

Asian Paints ASPN.NS, India's largest paintmaker by market share, also reported a profit drop last month after a similar charge outweighed strong volume growth in its core decorative paints segment.

Indian paint makers have seen uneven profit trends in recent quarters, driven by a mix of demand conditions, cost pressures and other company-specific factors.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
Estimates (next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
# of analysts
Stock to price target**
Div yield (%)
Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd
KANE.NS
24.52
15.27
7.84
16.36
Hold
11
0.84
1.09
Asian Paints Ltd
ASPN.NS
48.59
32.31
6.94
10.69
Hold
35
0.88
1.03
Berger Paints India Ltd
BRGR.NS
40.67
25.50
8.69
13.82
Hold
21
0.83
0.82
Akzo Nobel India Ltd
AKZO.NS
27.07
17.36
2.17
18.67
Buy
2
0.78
3.57

* 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

OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- ($1 = 90.2070 Indian rupees)

Kansai Nerolac Oct Dec Stock Performance https://tmsnrt.rs/3ZH4K1J

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra and Komal Salecha in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)

((Surbhi.Misra@thomsonreuters.com |  X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_  |;))