Berger Paints FY18 Capex Rs 200 Crore, Bengal To Get Rs 60 Crore

Berger Paints India Ltd on Friday (4 August) said it will be pumping Rs 60 crore in West Bengal's Rishra plant out of total Rs 200 crore capex plan in FY18.

"The total capex plan for the current fiscal is Rs 200 crore and of which Rs 60 crore will go in the Rishra plant in West Bengal. This is our major investment since past six to seven years," Berger Paints managing director & CEO Abhijit Roy said on the sidelines of the AGM.

Rest amount will be shared by other plants of the company, he said.

Roy said the company was facing short of land, otherwise it could have invested additional Rs 50-60 crore.

He said they require at least two acres of land contiguous with its Rishra unit lying idle and which once belonged to ICI India but now is owned by an NRI technocract.

The company was setting up emulsion plant with capacity of 44160 tonnes in phases and setting up first colorants, vital ingredients for manufacturing paints with capacity of 2640KL per annum.

Berger Paints will bring the technology for the construction of green buildings in India, and in this effort its step-down subsidiary Bolix of Poland has signed a pact with NBCC (India) Ltd for import of the technology in the country.

The paint maker, in June, had acquired Saboo Coatings Pvt Ltd engaged in industrial coatings segment.

The acquisition cost was Rs 81.74 crore, Roy said.

It has also entered into an understanding with the concerned parties for purchase of 51 per cent of equity shares of Saboo Hesse Wood Coatings Private Ltd and the balance 49 per cent is held by Hesse shares GmbH of Germany, company s chairman Kuldip Singh Dhingra told shareholders while addressing the AGM.

The acquisition is not yet completed and is subject to necessary approvals.

Hesse is another partner there and it a German company. Therefore, we need Reserve bank of India's permission for that (acquisition). We have applied for it and we hope by September-October, the permission will come through. Once it comes, the acquisition will be completed, Roy said.

Berger Paints India on Friday (4 August) on a standalone basis reported a net profit of Rs 105.17 crore in the Q1 period ended June 2017, down eight per cent over the corresponding period profit of Rs 114.23 crore despite sales amid higher sales.

Revenue from operation during the quarter was higher by eight per cent to Rs 1262.49 crore against Rs 1160.39 crore in the same period of 2016-17.

On consolidated basis the company posted a decline in net profit by six per cent to Rs 112.9 crore against Rs 120.3 crore posted in the correspnding period in 2017-18.

We have raised price in the recent back by 5-5.5 per cent and so we hope for better profitability in the subsequent quarters, Berger managing director and CEO Abhijit Roy said.

(PTI)