Asian Paints net grows 19 %

"It has been an impressive performance by all three business units which has powered sales and profit growth for the company in this financial year. The decorative business, the largest in our portfolio, did extremely well. The industrial coatings business' strong performance has been due to a very good show by the auto-refinishes, protective coatings and powder coatings business. The international business unit registered impressive profit growth and the challenge would be to sustain this performance going ahead," Ashwin Dani, vice chairman and managing director, Asian Paints said.

For the year ended March 31, 2008 its net profit jumped 37.9 per cent Rs 375.2 crore over Rs 272.1 crore last year.

Its total income for the year increased by 21.6 per cent from Rs 2861.7 crore to Rs 3478.7 crore. Post the results its share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange dipped by 1.6 per cent to Rs 1212 in a weak market.

In March 2007, Asian PPG Industries, a joint venture of the company, had acquired '2K Business' from ICI Paints. On consolidation of accounts of the subsidiaries and joint venture , the consolidated net profit of the group grew 45.6 per cent to Rs 409.2 crore and operating income rose by 20  per cent to Rs 4404.3 crores from Rs 3670 crores in the previous year.