Thanks, Iqra. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we welcome you all to Q3 FY 2026 and 9 months FY 2026 results conference call of Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited.

We have with us today senior management, represented by Mr. Pravin Chaudhari, Managing Director; Mr.

Yash Ahooja, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Jason Gonsalves, Director, Corporate Planning, IT, and Materials.

Now I hand over the call to the management for initial comments and then we will open the floor for question-and-answer session. Thanks, and over to you, Pravin, sir.

Yeah. Good morning, all of you.

I'll request Jason to walk you through a brief presentation and the comments. Good morning, everyone, and greetings to you.

I'm grateful for your continued support and interest in our company. Thanks for joining this investor call of Kansai Nerolac.

I'll begin by going through our presentation. One of the first slides is on the Nerolac purpose and vision.

Our purpose is to create environments for a healthy and beautiful future, and our vision is to design solutions that protect, inspire, and touch lives every day. Kansai Nerolac is a water-positive company and is committed to reduction of emissions and improving the percentage of green energy used by the organization.

When it comes to our brand, our legacy is very strong. We have a 100-year-old excellence model.

Our robust strength lies in R&D capabilities and strategic technology partnerships, especially in the industrial segment, where we deliver continuously cutting-edge solutions across diverse applications. Despite intense competition, our brand continues to command attention.

We proudly hold the position of the second most recognized brand in terms of the brand equity index nationwide. Our Nerolac jingle, which has been there for more than three decades, also resonates across various age groups.

I think that's another asset that we have created and we are leveraging it pretty well. Our spirit of innovation is deeply rooted in advanced Japanese technology, which has been the driving force behind our industrial business.

Looking ahead, this same technological edge will increasingly shape our decorative segment, enabling us to continuously introduce breakthrough concepts that align with growing demand for premium products. A prime example of this was our Paint+ range, an exclusive line of category-defining products launched a few years ago, offering Indian consumers a truly differentiated experience in decorative paints.

Coming to the business environment, during the quarter, we saw a very good demand for automotive products, fueled primarily by GST cuts, the continued focus of government on infrastructure. Of course, there was extended monsoon in the beginning of the quarter.

This time, the festive season was shorter because of an early Diwali. The quarter also saw a lot of geopolitical conflicts and tariff wars.

Rupee was depreciated significantly in the quarter, and crude price remained range-bound. Coming to business highlights, in decorative, among the key things that have happened during the quarter, Paint+ group of products, which we had launched, today their contribution to overall decorative business is greater than 10%.

The project and institutional business has shown a double-digit growth. We have been able to add 3,500 dealers in our network as on December '25.

Our specialty stores, the Nerolac NextGen Shoppee, shop-in-shop, and Nerolac Paint+ zones, today the network is more than 600 plus. We have a strong double-digit performance in construction chemicals, waterproofing, and premium wood finishes.

Services have continued to grow and are contributing more than 5% to our overall decorative business. During the year, we have launched 11 new products, and new products' contribution to decorative business remains pretty stable.

Among the innovations that we have launched during this quarter is the Excel Everlast 20, a product which offers 20 years performance, having superior weather resistance, including non-fading of shades and waterproofing property, as well as water-based Excel Total Floor Coat, which is a product which offers excellent resistance to abrasion, algae resistance, and resists hot tyre marks, especially designed for paver blocks and cement tiles. In industrial, in automotive four-wheeler, we have launched a BTX-free metallic monocoat matte product for interiors of cars, a 1K common conductive primer having superior adhesion on multiple plastic substrates.

For the two-wheeler industry, we have developed a PU matte metallic monocoat, and we have implemented against the existing two-coat system, having superior properties of no color transfer and of petrol rub after 0 hours of post baking, and no gloss variation in broader workability band. For the commercial vehicle segment, we introduced low-bake epoxy CED black, which will help reduce the baking condition significantly.

In the performance coating liquid segment, we have introduced low-bake backcoat and topcoat for coil coating, which has both been approved and commercially supplies have started. In the powder coating segment, we have introduced high scratch resistance coatings, especially designed in matte black and matte white variant.

Coming to our media campaigns, our 'Ghar Ki Raunak' campaign was extensively run. Our iconic jingle, modernized to resonate with today's consumers while preserving its nostalgic charm.

This refreshed sonic identity is already gaining traction, adding a vibrant new dimension to our promotional strategy and further strengthening our brand recall. This is promoted on all major media platforms like TV during the Asia Cup, radio, audio, digital videos, banners, and social media influencers.

Coming to branding and marketing, our brand and marketing investments have remained strong, with impactful campaigns running across both television and digital platforms. These efforts are designed to deepen consumer engagement and reinforce Nerolac identity in the minds of our audience.

Coming to industrial highlights, in automotive, the auto segment witnessed very strong growth in Q3, fueled by GST 2.0, and there has been a strong focus on innovation and creating new technologies to increase total addressable market. In performance coating in the liquid segment, we witnessed very strong demand in the general industrial segment, driven primarily by construction equipment and pre-engineered buildings.

In powder coating, we were able to have a stable demand momentum, driven by auto ancillaries, electrical appliances, and furniture segment. In auto refinishes, we witnessed a stable demand during the quarter.

In the premium PU segment, we have had notable body shop wins, and the conversion from solvent-borne to water-borne systems is transitioning as per plan. We won a number of accolades during the year: the Dragons of Asia marketing award in Q2 '25; we were the gold winner in Ambient Media in Q1 '25; the GoaFest in Q1 '25, seven baby blue elephant awards; and we won significant awards from automotive majors like TAFE, Maruti Suzuki, and Suzuki Motor Cycle India.

Coming to the area of ESG, KNP was rated in B category in Climate Change and Water Security in the CDP cycle 2025, and we were rated in the top 12 percentile within the chemical industry group in the S&P Global Large and Mid-Cap ESG Index 2025. In CSR, through our initiatives, we remain deeply committed to driving positive change in the area of education, healthcare, women's entrepreneurship, and skill development.

These efforts reflect our ongoing dedication to giving back to society in meaningful and sustainable ways, empowering communities and fostering inclusive growth. Coming to our financial results, for the quarter, our growth in net revenue was 3.5%, for PBDIT it was 0.2%, and PBT before exceptional items was -3.7%.

On a YTD basis, for standalone, the net revenue grew by 1.9%, PBT is down by 3.2%, and PBT before exceptional items is down by 4%. On a consolidated basis, for quarter three, our net revenue is up by 3.1%, PBDIT by 2%, and PBT before exceptional items is down by 3.7%.

For the 9 months ending December, our net revenue was up by 1.5%, PBDIT is down by 2.4%, and PBT before exceptional items is down by 3.1%. Coming to risk and outlook, among the significant risks that we see: geopolitical tensions leading to supply chain disruptions and volatility in commodity prices; inflationary risks due to the tariffs uncertainty; and import cost surge due to rupee depreciation.

Among outlook, as per RBI, construction activity would see a sustained momentum; demand momentum generated by GST is expected to continue in quarter four; automotive segment is expected to maintain growth momentum; and growth in infrastructure such as railways, roads, airports, power augur well for the paint industry and will drive demand for high-end coatings. Thank you.

This marks the end of the presentation. We will now take question answers.

Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity.

I wanted to kind of first check with the decorative side. Could you give a sense on how the momentum was in 3Q and what gives you comfort on the recovery?

Also, if you could cover if there's any change in the competitive intensity, especially after the merger of AkzoNobel and JSW?

Hi, Avi.

As

far as deco is concerned, October, because of shorter Diwali, obviously was not great. What we saw as we run through this quarter, we saw that November and December, there was quite a good recovery.

We are seeing that there is a good growth momentum which is coming back now, and we hope that continues in Q4 as well as we move into Q4. Yeah.

On competition intensity, yeah, competition intensity still remains pretty intense and as far as this Akzo and JSW is concerned, obviously, as they stated, that royalty is what they're going to pull back in the market to develop and obviously invest in either influencer or media, depends on what they prioritize. That will remain to be seen as to how they deploy and what will be the effect this given their network.

Obviously, everyone is trying to protect their own market and try to grow. I guess that intensity will continue to remain for some time now.

Got it, Pravin. Got it.

Pravin, if I may, just closing on the other side, which is the industrial side. Now, clearly, your comments on the industrial side were a lot more constructive.

Now, if automotive is seeing the kind of growth it is seeing and decorative recovery is where it is, how do you see the EBITDA margin profile in the near term for us? Is there a risk on that 12% to 13% number that you had shared in the target?

Right. Avi, if you look at the kind of investments we are doing, either in terms of manpower, feet on street, our influencer connect programs have intensified, we're investing heavily in that, whether it is architect, whether it is painter.

Our CCD machine deployments have increased. We are now close to 85% of this theme of CCD machines, we're reaching that target, and also very actively investing in our dealer openings.

If you look at on decorative front, we are obviously not letting ball fall and we are investing heavily in this area. Obviously, given that even industrial has pretty good runway as we see as far as quarter four is concerned.

With all that happening, you'll see that in quarter three we still maintained our EBITDA guidance of 13%. I think we are very cautious of this, and I think we maintain that.

I think that is how it will be going forward. It will remain 13% to 14% is what we maintain even now.

Sorry, 13% to 14% EBITDA margin guidance?

Yeah. That's the range we intend to maintain.

Okay. Sir, last bit on the industrial side, if you could kind of just give a sense, for just a reminder of how margins differ between industrial versus decorative qualitatively or any numbers over there, and where do we stand versus pre-COVID, just to understand the work that has been done over there.

That's all from my side.

Right, Avi. While we'll not able to share breakup or exact number, but I can only tell you that pre-COVID, I think our profiles have dramatically improved, and as far as our industrial margins are concerned, they have also improved.

In fact, that is how we are able to also try to invest more as far as decorative is concerned and manage overall guidance. Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

Thank you very much. That's all from my side,

and wish you

luck.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Good morning.

Thank you for taking my question. My question is on the staff cost.

If I see entire last year and whatever I've seen of the past quarters of this year as well, the staff cost has remained elevated vis-a-vis the sales growth momentum that is there. I understand that you have been investing into higher staff cost, but then when do you expect the benefits of higher investments to start showing into the decorative volumes, especially with the dealer reach increase and the feet-on-street increases that you have been doing, seems to be higher than the industry average, and want to understand when are you expecting the investments to start yielding results?

That's my first question.

Thanks, Mihir. You're right.

I think investment is happening not only in decorative, but also on industrial side, selectively in industrial, especially in our focus areas, and we're trying to expand our segmental play as far as industrial is concerned. That is also call for some kind of investment in manpower.

Obviously this allied manpower investment happens across the chain. As far as decorative is concerned, our investment that we are doing on manpower is yielding result, and we saw that in quarter three in terms of improvement in the performance metrics at town level.

I'm sure that continued effort will start yielding greater results as we move forward.

Understood. Secondly, if you can share some insights on how you've been able to hold up your older dealers and how that has changed with the competitive intensity increasing?

Is there a material churn that is there probably in the tail end of your dealers that is there, which is why there is an impact? Or there is no major churn in your dealer network and you're just keeping on building on to newer dealers on this?

Yeah. Mihir, churn is there every year.

What we have seen is percentage of churn has not changed at all. I think it remains same.

The good part is our weighted reach dealer, obviously, we have been able to retain, and obviously at the same time acquiring new competition dealer, which is normal phenomena in industry, that keeps happening. There's no material change that I'm seeing.

Obviously, it is the overall demand environment and the intensity that is being seen, that is what is resulting in obviously realigning of share at each counter. That doesn't mean that share losses is very different than what it has been in the past.

Got it. Thanks.

That's comforting to know. Sir, lastly, I wanted to just check on the gross margin profile.

Now, third quarter, usually with the expensive paints, you have a higher margin profile. One would expect sequential improving in gross margins.

Because your industrial and auto segments, we can see the car production numbers have been robust, maybe because of the mix change that happened, maybe the gross margins did not sequentially see an improvement. However, going forward, with that normalizing and with the input costs remaining constant, is there a possibility for gross margins probably to inch up further from these levels?

You're right on mix, and yeah, that's the right observation. Going forward, I think if our geopolitical situation remains as it is and if improvements that are happening currently if that continues, I'm sure you can see some change, but I don't think there'll be dramatic change that will happen.

Historically for a quarter four of ours, as far as decorative is concerned, mix is also not favorable for us. In a way, I would say we would like to say that it will be at same level or marginally better, not significantly different as far as Q4 is concerned.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

That's all from my side. Wishing you all the very best.

Thank

you, Mihir.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

I hope I am audible.

Yes, you are audible.

Okay. Sir, I wanted to know a little bit, is the assumption correct that the deco revenue growth will still be in negative in this quarter?

I would say it is marginally negative to flat. That's how it is.

Okay. In that case, then industrial revenue would be slightly in the double-digit range growth?

About that, touching double digit, yes.

Right. Within that, can you just give some color?

Because auto growth would be much higher in this quarter. Is that the right thing to assume?

Sorry, can you come again?

Within that 10% industrial growth, can you split it up between, say, auto and some of the other non-auto segments?

That will be difficult to say that because we don't give that breakup. Historically, that has not happened.

Yeah.

Okay. Sir.

All right. Sir, in the Q4, because in Q3 decorative revenue had an impact in the month of October, March should ideally be a much better growth, probably closer to mid-single digit?

As far as Q4 is concerned, yeah, that's our intent. Yeah.

Sir. All right, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello?

Yeah. Yeah.

Hi, sir. Avnish from PL Capital.

Avnish. I want to know what exactly is the trend in the volume growth, both in decoratives as well as in the industrial?

Based on that, how does our market share stand now in comparison to what we were in the previous quarters?

Yeah. As far as market share is concerned, industrial, we are able to grow market share, and in case of decorative, it will be about same market share.

Now, as far as volume gap is concerned, volume, we have not been showing it anytime, I don't think I'll able to share that, but only thing I can tell you, as far as deco is concerned, our volume and value gap is nil. We're exactly at same level.

I think that's a positive change from the mix point of view, and I think that is what we are trying to pursue. It is important for us to ensure that our premium segment grows, which have done very well in quarter three.

I think that's the direction we would like to take going forward as far as deco is concerned. As far as industrial is concerned, I think typically we look at really value because that what matters when you look at the high-end products.

I think value matters more than volume. There also, we are I think as we see things, I think we have done pretty well as far as overall industrial is concerned from volume perspective as well.

Sir. I just wanted to understand how is the decorative volumes are going for Kansai and for industry, because if I look at, say, market leader or any other player, everyone is today having, say, your putty, construction chemical, and waterproofing, for everyone it is growing in double digits.

Even after that, if the volumes are, say, in the low single digit to mid-single digit for most players, okay, then actually, if I look at pure paints volumes, how is that volume going for the industry and for Kansai? Now

so, frankly, because industry details are not available at mix level, but I guess your observations are right. The volume-value gap obviously is signified by poor mix, and second thing is higher discounting in the existing range.

Both have the components, and I think in some concall they must have shared this. As far as we are concerned, obviously, putty is pretty easy.

You can always dump it and at a higher discount, but it is not obviously making great margins. Consciously, we are not playing that.

As far as my important towns are concerned, my strong areas are concerned, obviously, I might put it as a package, but that's not what we are using as a entry point in some other areas. As far as we are concerned, I think it is important for us to focus on the product mix and looking at the premium nature and premium improvement as far as we are concerned.

Sir. Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, you called out that competitive intensity is still very high. Just wanted to understand is it increasing or is it kind of staying the same, A?

B, in what facet of business is it kind of surfacing the more? In the sense, is it more discounts at dealer level or customer level, or even at resource level on the back end, be it on human resource or raw material, securing raw material?

Which all facets we are seeing this competitive intensity there?

Tejas. I think intensity is there across.

Manpower deployment has happened long time. I think that remains elevated, across industry.

As far as discounts are concerned, obviously, they are also increased, but they are now at similar level. There is no immediate reduction that you have seen as far as Q3 is concerned.

Obviously, there have been some price adjustment which was announced by competition, a very marginal one, 2% to 3%, but that I don't think is also aimed to obviously try to adjust some bit of discount. Direction suggests that at least.

As of now, ending Q3, we have not seen any change in the intensity on all the front that you mentioned, whether it is influencer, whether it is dealer discounting, or investment in the manpower. That all continues as far as decorative is concerned.

Sir, the new entrant has also launched this EMI scheme, which has actually hit the dealer level as well. We have picked up that it is very much in execution as well.

Just wanted to know your thoughts. Is it a tool that we'll like to use in future to recruit customers, or you believe that that doesn't move the needle and hence shouldn't be kind of triggered?

I think see, initial euphoria in terms of any new scheme will be there, but having seen the industry, I think it will be very difficult for this to sustain at a scale that it will demand. I think there are other players in similar industry have tried setting up fund to finance, but I don't think it has gone anywhere.

I think we'll have to wait and watch, I think how that progresses. As of now, our belief is that scaling will be a problem.

We'll wait and watch how things go.

Thanks. That's all from my side.

Thanks, Tejas.

Thank you. Two questions.

First, on the industry growth, looking at the overall growth for the listed players, it seems that as earlier participant highlighted that core paint growth is either low or no growth. Now, are you able to assign any reason, or are you seeing any change in trend after, say, all these fiscal and monetary efforts from the government?

That is first question. Second question, on your growth, overall revenue growth into low single digit, at the same time, you are highlighting that industrial and automotive have done well.

Does that mean that your decorative has degrown in value terms? Why I'm asking is that because Asian Paints JV for auto and industrial both are growing and say either in large high single digit or double digit for last two or three quarters, which suggests that they have gained share.

In which of the segments, decorative, industrial, are you losing share, if so? Just clarification on that.

Thank you.

Keyur, I think it depends on what you look at. I think as I mentioned earlier, as far as decorative is concerned, our volume and value gap is almost zero.

That suggests that our focus on really selling quality or mix is very important for us. There's other products which are, I would say, low-margin products like putty, and there are some other products which obviously there in the industry and which is getting pushed.

We are trying to consciously be away from that segment, and that is what is resulting into this. It depends on how you look at market share.

I think what we are really concerned about is our future I would say growth projections and maintaining profitability or improving profitability going forward. That will happen only if we try to invest in the quality of mix.

That is as far as decorative is concerned. On industrial, yes, again same thing.

We are looking at premiumizing our portfolio and focusing on the profitability and investing systematically to build that. As a result, obviously, if we look at segmental wise, there's no loss of share at all.

All that might have happened is there is a segment we are not representing, for example, marine. We are not there in the marine at all.

Because of our global arrangement, we can't play in India. There are such segments where we don't play.

Obviously, if there is a growth in that area, one can say that as a industry there might be share realignment, but as far as our segment play is concerned, there's no share loss at all.

Yeah. Sir, just first question of any green shoots for industry growth.

Core paints seem to be either not growing or growing and at very low single digit. Are you seeing any green shoots?

Just core like-to-like products, what were there, say, 5, 6 years back, with no much large inflation or no large price cuts, there shouldn't be any value-volume mismatch for those category of products except for discounting. Now, they used to grow in, I'd say, high single-digit value terms or low double-digit in value terms, as well as volume terms.

Are you seeing any signs that industry is going back to those times or at least improving from where it is for last, say, couple of years?

Keyur, as far as movement from, let's say, quarter one to quarter two to quarter three is concerned, definitely in quarter three after Diwali, November and December, we have seen changes happening in the demand pattern and we have seen the recovery in core paint as well. That is what you have seen, and we are hoping that that will continue in quarter four also in the core paint category, which is basically emulsion, enamel, and distemper, and whatever it is.

That is how it will continue as that is what we believe in. Going back to your question of whether we'll see and when we'll see that equal to GDP or more, I think that also we are also really hoping that that day should come soon.

Looking at the changes that are happening and discretionary nature of our industry, painting cycles, all that is also contributing to this. Hopefully, there'll be someday end to this because ultimately, one has to paint their house, right?

I don't know when which quarter, which year that will happen.

Understood, sir. Sir, thanks a lot.

All the best.

Thank you, Keyur.

Yeah. Sir, one question on long-term industry growth rates.

If we look at, compared to 2015, the efforts to drive the growth, that is the entire ad spend done by all the four majors, the initiatives in distribution expansion, the trade spends, the new product launches, compared to that, we have seen there is a material increase in the efforts to drive the industry growth in terms of over past 10 years. Like one, there are multiple number of new players have entered; the ad spend in the industry, the new product launches, trade spends, everything has gone up.

Now despite that, the industry has kind of slowed down. Is it fair to assume that probably the penetration level in India and the per capita consumption, etc., have reached to a decent level, and here on, the industry growth rates may structurally be lower the way we have seen it in case of a lot of other industries like toothpastes or hair oil or even soaps or detergent, etc., where the penetration levels have gone up to a very high level, expecting a very high growth in those industries sustainably is difficult?

Do you think that stage has reached for paint sector as well?

Aniruddha, I don't think so that has reached because we are still about 1/3 of global average, and given the prosperity and all that is happening as far as India is concerned and per capita income increasing, I'm sure our ability to spend more on the premium products will increase. What I foresees like this, that volume per se will actually change in the mix part will change.

All the products that we today call decorative, I think slowly and gradually that will get shifted to pure play emulsion, which is what globally exist. They don't have these so many categories.

It's a basically emulsion paint, which is called as a decorative paint. That is likely to happen as we go forward, which essentially also means that my per kg price will increase.

I think that is where the growth in value term will start coming going forward. As far as growth future is concerned, I think industry is pretty secured.

I think there is a big runway available for this industry to grow, and probably that is the one of the reason why there are so many players who are interested in entering this industry, because they see that there is a growth runway available and there is a premiumness also possibility exist if things are executed well on the ground. Yeah.

Okay. Sure, sir.

Understood. Sir, second and last question.

Now commodity prices are a bit lower, and we have seen contrasting actions. Akzo has cut prices, whereas Birla Opus has raised prices.

How do you see the pricing trend to emerge in the industry, and what will be Kansai's actions on that? That's it from my side.

Thanks.

As far as prices are concerned, I think they're very stable, and as of now, I don't think there is any need to really substantially change the prices. That is what our view is, unless there are some different actions which are taken in the market.

The price change that is seen in the industry about Akzo or Opus, Birla Opus, is not very significant. 2%, 3%, I don't think is going to really change much as far as industry is concerned.

As such, Opus was lower by 5%, they are correcting it, I guess. I don't think it has any material change or impact that is going to be seen.

Okay. Sure, sir.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Hello?

Ajay. Hello.

Yeah. Thanks for taking my question.

I have two questions. One, wanted to understand more on the trend that you indicated of volume-value gap, which has actually reduced for you.

How has it been kind of narrowing over the last maybe few quarters, and what are your expectations going forward? Are you likely to kind of maintain this kind of a flattish kind of a volume-value gap, or you expect this to again inch up going ahead?

Yeah. Ajay, our intent is to actually have it at same level, which obviously means our quality of mix is better.

Though, while that is our endeavor, but obviously quarter-on-quarter it keeps changing because mix are very different. I would say I don't recall now what was our Q1, Q2, but Q4 also our intent is that only, that to focus on the mix.

There might be slight change because of different mix profile compared to last year. That might play out, but it won't be very large.

That is what I can share.

Understood. The second was you kind of did indicate about the recovery in the prior quarter, more in October, November, December, gradually.

Can you just also throw some more light in terms of how the sustainability of this recovery, and also, how you see in terms of cyclical recovery, because there's a lot of talk happening in the industry about cyclical recovery of the paint sector. If can throw some more light on that part, what is the confidence of this kind of a growth sustaining or kind of accelerating going ahead?

I think as we entered quarter four, we have seen that sign of some recovery, so that gives us confidence that quarter four should also be better.

Understood. Is it expected to kind of improve from here on, any sense on that or how stronger can be expect, because still if you look at the industry growth, it is still kind of subdued in that context?

Yeah. That is right.

What is happening, if you look at total industry, which includes all the new players also, which figures are very difficult, those are not available except top five, but I think as a industry, unorganized, organized, our sense is that industry still has grown. I think it is not that industry itself is degrowing.

₹70,000-₹80,000 crore industry would have certainly grown by if not GDP, about GDP. What happened is there are so many players who are coming in and putting in their bit in each state.

Obviously, that is resulting into not knowing exactly quantify and reconcile impact on top four. That is what is happening.

As far as industry growth momentum is concerned, future is very secured. I think this is short term.

I think resilience will be called for, and I think we are all trying to protect our own turf. I think given that situation, I'm sure things should turn out better, and hopefully we'll reach that as a industry and as a all players that those are listed will able to show closer to GDP numbers once this settles.

Understood. Sir, last question from my side was more on the backward integration.

We have seen that large players are undertaking backward integration given the fact that that will help in terms of better margin for them. How do you perceive this given the fact that for a players such as us, can it lead to further impact in terms of the competition, because they might pass on this benefit in terms of the margin benefit to either customers or to the trade and thereby kind of trying to gain further on the margin side of it?

Is that something how you perceive it or how do you want to look at it in terms of going forward? Do you also have certain plans in terms of executing some of this backward integration projects so that you also gain that edge in terms of the margins?

Yeah. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Ajay, backward integration is a strategy which has to support either your absolute niche play or scale. I think these are the two aspects.

As far as scale is concerned, right now, we evaluate based on that. Wherever we think that scale will support in terms of our being more competitive, definitely we invest.

Likewise, as far as industrial is concerned, we are completely backward integrated on all major categories because we lead there, and obviously we introduce a lot of niche and high-end technologies for our customer. Obviously, that we need that kind of a backward integration to be competitive as well as to control quality and technology of that product.

That is as far as industrial is concerned. In decorative also, we have backward integrated as far as emulsions are concerned.

For last 10 to 15 years, we are doing that. That again is not being used really to produce a commodity product.

I think that is used to produce very niche, high-end, unique-to-category product that we introduce offering unique benefits. That kind of product, we try to make it there and try to use that in our product.

It depends on what strategy we are going to pursue. If I am going to put something in economy segment using scale, and if I'm then trying to pass it on to market, I don't think I'll able to improve my margin.

Basically, I have reduced the price and I have set off everything. That is what is likely to happen.

I don't know what is the aim, but as far as we are concerned, we evaluate basis our requirements and definitely whenever need be, either to protect our competitiveness or to introduce high-end products and premiumization, and we decide on the backward integration investment.

Understood. Quite helpful.

Thank you, sir.

Thanks, Ajay.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

I just wanted to get some color on the international businesses and Nerofix?

Yeah. Nerofix is doing pretty well, growing at double digit, higher double digit, I would say, and that is also because of our play as far as retail is concerned as well as on industrial side.

They have increased their play on the segments. That is going pretty well.

On profitability also, they have improved significantly. I think that's a fantastic work that has happened as far as Nerofix is concerned.

On Nepal also continues to do very well, and I think that situation slight disturbance was there, that is now passing, and I think things have started recovering. Overall, I think subsidiaries are also in pretty good shape, I would say.

Sir, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, anything to call out?

Bangladesh is still under stress, and frankly, every quarter we try to assess the situation, but with this election round the corner and I don't know post election what happens, but situation remains difficult as far as Bangladesh is concerned for us. As far as Lanka is concerned, we exited that, we did that.

Yeah.

Oh, sorry. Got it, sir.

That's all

from my side. Right.

Thank you, Avi.

Yeah. Thank you so much for attending and showing interest in our company.

I think our endeavor is to obviously maintain overall top-line growth as well as profitability guidance that is given. We hope to see you in month of May for our quarter four and year-end investor briefing.

Thank you so much.