Asian Paints Limited Q3 FY22 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Asian Paints Limited (ASIANPAINT) Q3 FY22 Earnings Concall

Management Update:

• The company’s overall focus has been in the Premium and Luxury space where it grew strongly in 3Q. This focus also reflected in the growth of metro T1 T2 markets growing at a much higher pace in the quarter.

• ASIANPAINT’s Project business outgrew the retail business in terms of focus in Q3. Additionally, waterproofing business has been growing consistently over the last 7 years, with Q3 registering a 50% growth.

• Company’s Home decor strategy is expected to contribute about 8-10% of the overall business.

Q&A Highlights:

• On a question from Abneesh Roy of Edelweiss Securities Ltd about price increases internationally and in India, Amit Syngle, CEO commented that in the International market the overall price increase was in the range of 15-18%, while inflation was in the range of 28-29%. But in India, it is in the range of 22-23% and it is the first time in the history of company that it has taken this kind of a price increase in India.

• Avi Mehta of Macquarie asked that barring the short term impact of COVID wave, if the sharp price increases the company took would impact the volumes. Amit Syngle, CEO answered that the company won’t see a decline in volume. It has seen a leap of about a 10% increase in November and is still seeing healthy growth.

• Manoj Menon with ICICI Securities asked that in the overall volume revenue growth, what’s the paints versus non-paints segment contribution overall over the last 3, 5 years. Amit Syngle, CEO said that overall from a point of view of non-paints sales, it’s only the area of kitchen, bath and the other areas of home decor that are part of non-paint and it’s a small part of the overall business. So the larger performance is on the part of paint business.

• Tejas Shah from Spark Capital enquired about the project business and its growth going forward.  Amit Syngle, CEO commented that the company expects new construction to be at around 30% and repainting to be in around the 70% zone. The company is seeing increased government spending in the last two years from a projects space and for ASIANPAIN that segment has gone up due to the waterproofing coming in.

• Jay Doshi of Kotak Securities asks about the progress on network expansion and adding 45,000 outlets over the last seven quarters and the quality of it. Amit Syngle, CEO answered that when the company speaks about the 45,000 outlets it speaks of the overall entry ASIANPAINT is making with respect to putting its tinting machines there and working with distributors to reach smaller towns.

• Tejas Shah from Spark Capital also asked if the company is seeing a significant increase in penetration of the tinting machine versus the previous run rate. Amit Syngle said that that’s the overall focus the company is maintaining for the last 4-5 years. The significant increase could be when it’s compared to a decade back.

• Tejas Shah from Spark Capital enquired about the timeframe of the 7-8% revenue expectation from services and 8-10% from home decor. Amit Syngle answered that in the next 2-3 years the company expects to get into these percentage contributions, specifically by March of 2025.

• Percy Panthaki of IIFL Research questions about the input cost scenario and margins, whether the price increase and input cost inflation would impact margins. Amit Syngle CEO commented that the price increases the company took are pretty substantial of about 15% and this would see the impact in Q4 in terms of profitability. However, inflation seen over Q4 to Q3 would not be of that dimension and will be much milder.

• On a question asked by Abhijeet Kundu from Antique about the timeframe of spare capacity additions and utilization levels, Amit Syngle CEO answered that it will happen in the next 2, 3 years and the company would definitely need that capacity looking at the rate it is growing. On the utilization levels, CEO added that it’s in the 70-75% level.