Kansai Nerolac Paints Q4 net profit down 23.5% to Rs 65.4 cr; total revenue marginally drops to Rs 1,080 cr

New Delhi: Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd on Wednesday reported a 23.47 percent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 65.36 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 85.41 crore in January-March quarter a year ago, Kansai Nerolac said in a BSE filing. Its total revenue from operations dropped 1.55 percent to Rs 1,080.07 crore during the quarter under review as compared with Rs 1,221.23 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

#4QWithCNBCTV18 | Kansai Nerolac reports Q4 earnings.
Tax expense in Q4 stands at Rs 28.1 cr Vs Rs 48 cr (YoY) pic.twitter.com/woDuYYPO8o

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 6, 2020

Commenting on the results, Kansai Nerolac Vice Chairman and Managing Director H M Bharuka said, “Sales and bottomline was impacted this quarter due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Demand for automotive paints continued to be severely impacted due to the continued unprecedented slowdown in auto. Decorative growth was better.” Despite the year being extremely challenging due to cost control program and management of overheads, the company said it was able to improve EBITDA by 5.3 percent and EBITDA margin by 150 basis points. “PBT was impacted due to lower other income and higher depreciation. In the challenging business situation, the company was also able to release cash of Rs 123 crore from working capital,” Bharuka said. “Looking forward, the prolonged uncertainty due to COVID has created further demand destruction in the near term,” he added. The company’s total expenses fell 9.99 percent to Rs 990.41 crore as against Rs 1,100.45 crore a year ago. However, Kansai Nerolac’’s net profit for the fiscal year 2019-20 rose 15.21 percent to Rs 515.78 crore as against Rs 447.66 crore in the year before. Its total revenue from operations for the fiscal stood at Rs 5,279.97 crore, down 2.66 percent from Rs 5,424.32 crore in 2018-19. Meanwhile, in a separate filing, Kansai Nerolac said its board has recommended a dividend of Rs 3.15 per equity share for the financial year ended 31 March, 2020. It also informed about the appointment of Shigeki Takahara and Takashi Tomioka as non-executive directors with effect from 7 May, 2020, which would be subject to the approval of shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting of the company. Shares of Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd on Wednesday closed 0.29 percent higher at Rs 393.15 on the BSE.