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Akzo Nobel India reported a 44% rise in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by a drop in raw material costs.

The Indian unit of Dutch paint maker Akzo Nobel NV said its consolidated net profit rose to 942 million rupees ($11.32 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 654 million rupees last year.

Revenue from operations rose 3.2% to 9.56 billion rupees, while the cost of materials consumed fell 11.6%.

For further results highlights, click [FWN3C30QF]

KEY CONTEXT

Easing prices of crude, which account for about 30% of paint makers' raw material costs, has been a boon to the Indian paint industry.

Lower raw material costs had more than made up for the slow revenue growth at Akzo Nobel in the past three quarters as well.

"In retail, softening demand and erratic rains muted sales," Akzo Nobel India Managing Director Rajiv Rajgopal said.

Lower input costs helped market leader Asian Paints report a 54% rise in net profit in the September quarter and Kansai Nerolac post a 56% increase in profit.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBIT Price/S Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

DA ales growth growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Akzo Nobel India Ltd AKZO.N 24.36 15.62 NULL 10.36 14.76 Hold 1 0.90 2.69

S

Asian Paints Ltd ASPN.N 50.75 34.19 NULL 9.17 13.88 Hold 34 0.91 0.88

S

Berger Paints India BRGR.N 48.62 30.59 NULL 11.36 21.69 Sell 19 1.01 0.48

Ltd S

Kansai Nerolac KANE.N 32.94 20.99 NULL 11.04 21.08 Buy 12 0.92 0.57

Paints Ltd S

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell ** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JULY-SEPT STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.2270 Indian rupees