Higher cost of lead compounds growth challenges for battery makers

Street prefers Exide to Amara Raja, given the valuation difference

For the second consecutive quarter in a row, Exide Industries outperformed its smaller peer Amara Raja on the revenue growth front. The country’s largest battery maker posted a revenue growth of 43 per cent year-on-year for the March quarter, while Amara reported 33 per cent growth for the same period.

Though the automotive segment, which includes supplies to automakers as well as sales in the replacement segment, powered the sales of both the players, Amara’s growth was on a higher base. The positive for Amara has been that capacity constraints that impacted its passenger vehicle segment have eased with four