Mumbai: Asian Paints has announced its financial results for the quarter and nine months ended 31 December 2002.

For the nine months ended 31 December 2002, net sales of the company stood at Rs 11,278.8 million compared to Rs 9,982.0 million, an increase of 13 per cent. The PBDIT (profit before depreciation, interest and taxation) was Rs 2,223.4 million compared to Rs 1,719.2 million in the corresponding nine-month period of the previous financial year, registering an increase of 29.3 per cent.

The profit before tax was Rs 1,816.8 million compared to Rs 1,311.4 million, an increase of 38.5 per cent. The net profit for the nine months ended 31 December 2002 has increased by 35.9 per cent to Rs 1,138.1 million compared to Rs 837.4 million in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

For the third quarter ended 31 December 2002, net sales for the company registered growth of 9.1 per cent at Rs 4,133.6 million compared to Rs 3,787.9 million for the corresponding quarter of the last financial year. The PBDIT for the quarter increased by 22.9 per cent to Rs 816.23 million compared to 664.4 million.

The profit before tax was Rs 687.5 million compared to Rs 532.9 million in third quarter of the previous financial year registering an increase of 29 per cent. The net profit for the quarter was Rs 436.7 million compared to Rs 343.5 million, registering an increase of 27.1 per cent.

Says Asian Paints' vice-chairman and managing director Ashwin Dani: "Asian Paints continued its good performance in this quarter. The sales growth for the company has been good considering the overall demand situation prevalent in India. Besides topline growth, margins for the company have also improved."

Asian Paints has identified two segments in line with the Accounting Standards on Segment Reporting (AS-17). These are paints and others. For the nine-month ended 31 December 2002, the revenue generated from the paints business was Rs 10,552.9 million, an increase of 12.4 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

The other business that includes the manufacturing of chemicals generated revenues of Rs 847.9 million, an increase of 33 per cent. For the nine months of the current financial year, the paint business accounted for 92.6 per cent of the company's revenue while 7.4 per cent of the revenues were generated by the chemicals business, which includes the manufacturing of key raw material for paints, like phthalic anhydride and pentaerythritol.

For the decorative business unit, all segments posted good growth rates. The performance of the exterior segment continued to be impressive in the first nine months of the current financial year.

Asian Paints Elastomeric coatings, launched in the last financial year, is also performing well. The total number of Colour Worlds (Dealer Tinting System) installed by the company are now around 3,000 and dealers that have installed the Colour World have continued to perform well. The company did not change the prices of its products during the quarter.

The price of titanium dioxide increased in the international market during the period under review on account of the increase in demand in the US, China and the South East Asian countries. The price of imported rutile was ruling around $1,700 at the end of December compared to $1,500 at the beginning of the year. The prices of solvents and monomers required for the manufacture of paints remained stable during the quarter.

The performance of the chemicals division has been impressive due to the excellent performance of phthalic anhydride division. The phthalic division registered increased volumes and better price realisations for the quarter and the nine months of the current financial year.

The performance of the pentaerythritol division, which is a small proportion of the sales of the company, has also been good. During the quarter, the company completed the acquisition of Berger International Ltd, Singapore, and SCIB Chemical SAE, Egypt.

Asian Paints is India's largest paint company with a turnover of Rs 16.56 billion (around $340 million) in 2001-02. The company sells over 200,000 MT of paint annually.

After the acquisition of Berger International, Asian Paints now ranks among the top ten decorative coatings companies in the world. It has joint venture in 23 overseas countries. The company has 27 manufacturing facilities spread across the world with a combined paint-manufacturing capacity of around 330 million litres annually. It is the market leader in 10 countries including India.