Akzo Nobel India Limited (AKZOINDIA.NS) Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentleman, good day and welcome to the Akzo Nobel India Limited Q1 FY '26 Earnings Webinar. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Hi, everyone, joining the call today. It's a warm welcome from ICICI team and this has been an absolute pleasure as always for many years now to continue to host the Akzo Nobel India quarterly call. Thanks to the management giving us the opportunity. The management today continues to be represented by Mr. Rajiv Rajgopal, Chairman and Managing Director; Mr. Krishna Rallapalli, CFO and Whole Time Director; Mr. Rajiv Jha, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer; and today also joined by Mr. Rohit Totla, MSU Director, India Decorative Paints and Executive Director, Akzo Nobel India Limited. I'll hand over the baton to Rajiv Rajgopal for the original initial remarks. And then after that, we'll open the floor for Q&A. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Manoj. Good afternoon to all the shareholders. It's wonderful to get a chance to interact with all of you again. I just thought we've loaded the deck onto the website. So I'm not going to run through a canned presentation because I think the real meat is in taking some of the questions you may have. You've seen our results. And as I've always promised to you, it's not just when we have great or very strong quarters, but even like the one which we've just completed. We've had a relatively difficult quarter. We are here in front of you to be able to take questions and answer you to the best of our -- to the best extent we can in all transparency. On the quarter that's just gone by, as we've presented, we've had a revenue decline of about 4%. And the volumes were, of course, a little lower. We were flattish in volumes. In the decorative paint business, the decline was in line, marginally higher than the decline of the company. And the coatings business, which has been really growing very high single digit, also we witnessed a very low -- flattish to low single-digit growth, right? If you can see the numbers, you would see that between the revenue and EBIT, the margins -- the gross margins, there is a bit of dilution. That's largely because of 2 reasons. One, the mix of the businesses was more skewed towards the lower-margin businesses, particularly some of our businesses like coil, coatings and relatively on some of the low-margin products within the coatings business, while we had a sort of a flattish performance on a high-margin business, particularly vehicle refinish, right? In the decorative paints, our margins were pretty much flattish. Our challenge was more from a cost perspective, and that's largely because we've made certain future investments for growth, which is the reason you see between the GM and EBIT and the EBITDA, the drop because we worked on certain futuristic projects, particularly digital projects of really looking at creating the next wave on things like lead management, et cetera, where Rohit and team are working on. And we've completed that project, and now we are trying to take it across the country. So that's really what we have. I thought I'll just give you some color to the way the businesses have gone. We've obviously continued our March. For us, if you look at the quarter, it was June, which was a huge aberration. June, we saw a huge decline. And that perhaps had also to do with the strategic review, as I've said in the morning during my television interview saying that, look, we did see a bit of a decline. Some of it we had envisaged and anticipated. We did call our 700 dealers into Kolkata in the mid of June to reassure them that at that point of time, before the final winner or the bidder was announced, buyer was announced that we would continue to serve you well. But again, during the last week, once the announcement was made, there was a little bit of apprehension by our dealers and customers in terms of warranty, how that will be taken, et cetera. Much of it has been sorted out in the month of July, which is why perhaps we've seen a good bounce back in July against what I think has still been a bit of a tepid growth for the industry, yes. So our bounce back has more to do with the fact that you've got an average June and July would also indicate to you how it is. We continue to really be focused in our markets, and we continue to make sure that we are addressing our customer issues and being able to solve them. And obviously, now that the entire strategic review is over and we are now working very closely to make sure that we get the revenue trajectory back to the areas and move back to becoming the top 2 on incremental growth and eventually start moving towards becoming the fastest growth player. That's really where it is. I'll invite Krishna to say a few comments.

I think, Rajiv, you largely summed it up. I think it's one of the big -- I would -- we would [ perceive ] this as. I think -- we will be back in the trajectory where we intend to be. And with that, we can ask Manoj to open the question and answers.

Yes. So if there is nothing else, of course, we are joined by Rajiv Jha, who's sitting with us and Rohit, who has dialed in from Calcutta. We try to make sure that we win hugely in East. So he's there, right? So with this, Manoj, back to you.

Yes, I can see one participant in the voice, nothing in the text as of now. But we'll start the Q&A, please.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Lakshminarayanan Ganapathi from Tunga Investments.

Just want to understand how the -- I mean, what would be the management going forward? Will there be a change in the senior management? I mean, how do you think about it? And what has been the -- is there -- did you see any increase in attrition at the mid-management level in the last 3 to 6 months? And how are you addressing that?

Yes. So look, to answer Lakshmi, first and foremost, the brief we've got from Mr. Parth Jindal, who actually came, who was very kind enough to visit our office with our CEO -- Global CEO. He addressed the team. And I think his presence has lifted the spirits of the entire team because, a very high energy, had very high clarity of thought and very clear in terms of the warm welcome he's given to the Akzo Nobel India family. So I think with that itself will give you an indication of the fact that people are quite enthused. Remember that this is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing conglomerates in the country, right? So I think it's a great opportunity for everybody. As far as the management is concerned, at this point of time, Parth intends to run the 2 companies separately for a period of time. So everybody remains as is and -- period of time, I think it will be more appropriate if he answers. But to the best of my knowledge, both the teams and obviously, all the great performers will be very much a part of the story, if I were to just sort of guess it, right? Second to your second part, as far as attrition is concerned, look, our attrition had gone up about 4, 5 months ago in the front line. And that was strategic review only being one small reason of it. I think there are various other reasons, but that's now sort of tapered along. Our challenge was not in attrition. Our challenge was in the recruitment of people that we were because a lot of people at the point of joining because of the -- not being clear in terms of who the buyer is, were taking time, they wanted to be clear, et cetera. That's also sort of now a little behind us. So that's where we are. Are we seeing in the middle management and senior management, any attrition? Senior management in my reports, no, none. And in the middle management, there have been 1 or 2 which is insignificant given the population that we have. But suffice to say that we've not really lost any heavy

Particularly for you, Rajiv. So Rajiv, in particular, I think you are taking a larger role in Akzo or driving from Asia Pacific [indiscernible] wrong. So how would the role [indiscernible] operations.

Yes, it is going to be a change for me because -- yes, I handle South Asia and Middle East. So I have started resigning from the boards of the Middle East companies in a phased manner. It will complete by the time the entire transaction is done end of December. Look -- for me, I think being -- I think I always believe that a leader never quits and a leader --that's a message I got from one of my mentors, who happens to be Suresh Narayanan, who was the CMD, who just retired from Nestle. And he ran by his personal story when I went through those moments of life during tough moments of life, right? So I'm blessed. I think I got a lot of good advice. And I'm thrilled. Look, at the end of the day, this is my team, this is my organization, and Parth has been very welcoming. Obviously, we haven't got to discussing the contours of the role, et cetera. But suffice to say, he has been very, very supportive and obviously, I think, again, it's for him to outline what he really would do. But for the moment, I think me and the team are going to -- are very happy to be a part of the transaction and part of the Akzo Nobel India Group, which is moving to the JSW Group.

It's wonderful because I think I've been tracking Akzo Nobel as an investor in the last couple of years, and I've seen how the company has gone from strength to strength with the leadership, which I can see on my screen. I think it's good to have the entire team taking the company to the next level under the new logo, if I can use the word, right? And the second question which I had is that -- or the third question is that did you roll out employee salary increases that happened in January or it [indiscernible]

April 1.

April, May? Because [indiscernible] has actually kind of gone up, right? What kind of increment average has been given for the company across the [ board ]?

The average increment was approximately about 5.7%, just about between 5 point -- but then we also had to make sure that for our -- particularly our frontline sales offers, et cetera, we rolled in -- because of the higher attrition, we wanted to make sure that we retain them. So keeping all that in account, as Krishna said, the average would work out to approximately about 6.5%.

Got it. Thank you so much, I will come back in queue [indiscernible].

Lakshmi, I also wanted to tell you the team at JSW Paints is also a very good team since I've had the Krishna, me and Rohit have had the fortune of meeting them. So I think we are thrilled. I think -- I think you should look for exciting times ahead as a shareholder.

Our next question comes from the line of Niharika Karnani from CapGrow Capital.

So I had a question on revenue. So what would be the revenue growth drivers from here on? And I mean, is the entire paint industry going through a lull phase right now? Is our competition also facing the same? And what we plan to do differently to capture more market share first? And second, I mean you would be running -- I mean both the companies would be run separately as of now you told. So in future, would there be a single brand going forward? Or how would be the [indiscernible] part?

So again, I think first, let me address the first part of your question. Look, I think the listed players, we are seeing the growth. You can average it out. It's pretty flattish when you take all the results, at least the top 4 players have all around, right? So -- and if you take the last 3, 4 quarters with 52% of the industry having a decline, right? So obviously, it was a decline. But I think things are improving. And I think that's what you heard from all my peers, from all my counterparts, and that's fairly indicative. So I think that's the first. The second is, look, I strongly believe that except for 1 or maybe 1 or 2 new players, I think the biggest battle we were having was with the newcomer who obviously put in a lot of volume and revenue into the market. What we are observing from the largest player and Rohit is of the call, is the fact that we've started now in many markets seeing that the volumes started averaging and revenue started averaging out, right? We believe that in our case, in many of the markets, both across West, East, in particular, some definitely some pockets of North, we are starting to get our lapsed dealers back, right? There is a program that Rohit and team are very well executing in terms of getting our lapsed dealers back. Yes, there are a few markets where there are still some challenges, particularly in the southern part of the country, and we are trying to address it. Hopefully, my belief is, look, the fundamental in the Diwali quarter, which is the October, December period, you'd see a bit of a growth largely because of the spurt that would happen because of consumption. Because consumption itself has been a bit low. It's not only paints, if you look at the consumption sector, right, today, we applaud 5% growth, right? And we come from a sector which used to be double-digit growth until a year ago. So I think we've got to -- I think that consumption itself will start seeing an uptick. We used to say that paints will be ideally 1.2x to 1.5x GDP. Now you've come to half, 0.3x to 0.6x of GDP, right? So my belief is it will climb to 1 and then go up. So that will give you a bit of a tailwind. Second, what are we doing? I think if you look at the growth in the market, it's largely coming from mass, economy, texture, putty, and construction chemicals. We are not even present in construction chemicals. We've just launched. Rohit and team have just started launching it, and I'm talking on the decorative side in the projects in a very small manner. Over the period of the year, you will see more of it. The team is working on a lot of launches, new product innovations, and that will also give a huge impetus in terms of growth. I believe that the growth will slowly come back, yes, and as we've seen -- started seeing. But yes, there's a lot in terms of execution excellence, which will also drive it. On our coating side, look, some of our businesses have come back. Marine and Protective is cyclical. The order book is strong, and we will see stronger growth in the next quarter because last year -- this quarter had a high base with a lot of projects which were onetime, including the naval ships that we painted, et cetera, for the Indian Navy. Those are onetime projects which came in last year this quarter, but we will -- we've got a good order book, and we should be back to growth. So not fundamentally [indiscernible]. In terms of the second part of the question on JSW brand, et cetera, that's currently -- we are kickstarting that activity. It will take time in terms of what the company brand should be because Akzo Nobel India can be used for a year. After that, we'll have to migrate to a new name. And that's something that the JSW Group and some of our team members are working together jointly, and we will come back to you when we have adequate information on this. Hopefully, I answered all your questions. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Maathangi Anirudh from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited.

I just had a couple of questions on the retail segment. So I think there are a couple of new players like Grasim and all, and they have a good network of distribution and dealers as well, and they might be leveraging their Birla network for this as well. I was just wondering if Akzo Nobel plans on bettering the distribution network. If yes, are there any numbers I can get on this front?

So let me first check if Rohit. Rohit can you take that on? Yes. And if you can answer, then I'll add to what you say.

Yes. So we have a very established network currently, and we are expanding it continuously. So -- what -- it's Akzo Nobel only, which is where the route to market is quite different from rest of the players in paint industry, where we have used classical FMCG model of distributor because paint as an industry requires faster servicing. What we traveled is last 10 years, we have added 4,000 new towns to our journey. We traveled from 1,400 towns to 5,500-plus towns. And our ambition is to continuously reach to close to 8,000 towns in the next 2 years. So this is where we are expanding and we are expanding our point-of-sale painting network also, which is continuously ramping up. So our aim is to reach close to 70% of our network [indiscernible].

Thank you, Rohit. See, there are 2 parts to this. One is, of course, the physicality of the distribution network being there. The second is to enable that, you need a portfolio. Ultimately, outlets keep categories and portfolio. So one, what Rohit was talking about is the traditional paint outlets and distribution. What Rohit and team are also working is, obviously, there's a construction chemical business where only 40% of the paint outlets actually caters to. So the team is also looking at scoping and looking at what are the outlets where we can incrementally add, right? And this is all stand-alone. I'm talking of us as Akzo Nobel India stand-alone, right? So that's really the focus Maathangi.

We have the next follow-up question coming from the line of Lakshminarayanan Ganapathi from Tunga Investments.

Just you mentioned that Akzo [indiscernible].

Sorry

You mentioned that Akzo Nobel name can be used for a [indiscernible].

Yes, that's right. That's right. Dulux has been bought over by Akzo Nobel India.

What about the Dulux name?

The Dulux name and entire IPRs have been [ bought ] over by Akzo Nobel India and is a part of the entire transaction, which has got acquired by the JSW Paints company.

[indiscernible] the name

Yes, yes Dulux, [indiscernible] it's a flagship. It is the main -- it is the reason [indiscernible] for the transaction, so that is the reason Lakshmi.

What about the other names like Interpon and all those things? That s

Interpon is a powder coating. Interpon is a company which is -- yes, Interpon is powder coating, which has now been a part of the transaction where we've sold it to Akzo Nobel Global, which is the reason why we got the money and the dividend that we were able to give, right? That now is a separately privately owned company of Akzo Nobel unlisted, right? International Sikkens and Vehicle Refinish, these are brands which will continue to be owned by Akzo Nobel, but is a part of the transaction and will be manufactured and sold by the JSW Akzo Nobel or whatever we call the new entity, yes.

Got it. And what about the names like Weathershield Protect or Aquatech?

Those are -- so the first is the company brand. The second is the master brand. The third is the brand which is under use, which is Velvet Touch, Weathershield, all that will continue. There's no change in anything at all.

Got it. And can you just give a mix of your B2B, B2C and project business because you mentioned in your presentation

See, deco is 80-20

Go faster than the [indiscernible] Can you just give the [indiscernible]

Lakshmi so request that we also allow others. So I'll just give you a quick number, but I thought you -- by now, you're an expert on this. Decorative is 80-20 retail projects. Overall, paints coatings is somewhere between 57-43. It can be 55-45. It can be 60-40 depends on -- it can even be 51-49 -- depends on the season, right? For example, now as we get into the decorative season ahead, it will be largely decorative. The quarter which has gone by, obviously, because of various reasons and because of the impact on decorative, it was obviously coatings did better. Fundamentally, it's been the ratio, if I take a 3-year average, it's around 57-43 or 60-40. Thank you Lakshmi.

The next question comes from the line of Diya Brijwani from White Whale.

I had some -- I needed some color on the industrial side of the business. Can you give some sense as to within -- I got your point on marine being a little cyclical. And if you can give some color on whether in auto, have we gained market share? How has the industry been and how are we performing? And secondly, do we also get some kind of synergy in the industrials as well with the JSW group? Or is it purely on the decorative side?

Would be some synergy on the industrial to take the last part of your question. The JSW Group is very, very big in the industrial coatings, coil coating in particular, and they already have made foray into some of the other businesses. So that's one. Two, in terms of the businesses, look, on vehicle refinish, we've had a very flattish quarter. But -- and obviously, that's an area where we have been gaining market share. But in the last quarter, obviously, I would need to wait for all the numbers to come to be able to address that specific answer. I think the good part in the vehicle refinish is our premium business has grown very well, right? Our entire problem was in the mass and in the low-end products, which is what the team is working to address now as we move forward, right? I think we've got -- we don't play in the OEM business. In the OEMs -- and we only play in the automotive plastics -- plastic, both exterior and interior of the car, of the vehicle. And we've got a good collaboration with some of the largest OEMs, whether it's Mahindra & Mahindra, with Tata Motors, MG, we've got good share. And I think we are now working together. I think one of the benefits, and that's obviously post the synergy, post the entire deal being completed is we'll obviously get to learn a lot from the JSW Group, which has got -- which has now established itself in the auto business. But it's early days. I mean, obviously, that's post the transaction. At this point of time, we stand alone are working with our existing partners, whom I mentioned in trying to get a fair share of the market.

Our next question comes from the line of Aniruddha Joshi.

Sir, just one question. Now that powder coating business is going out, so whether it will be possible to share proforma numbers for Q1 FY '26, assuming if the transaction was done on 1st of April? So what will be the indicative numbers that will remain with the existing shareholders of the Akzo? And secondly, also in terms of royalty will also reduce. So what will be the indicative net of royalty, other expenditure, if you can share these 2 things? That is on question number one. And question number two, now in terms of I guess some of the trade would also have got impacted because of the change of hands as well. So there would be some amount of impact on the trade stocking as well. So how do we see the trade stocking in a way changing, let's say, in the month of July? Or has it come back to the completely normal or still some impact or pain is still there in the trade also? So if you can maybe share qualitative aspects on this, it will be helpful.

Yes. So I'll answer -- start, Rohit, you can add anything that I'm saying. Look, our impact in June, Aniruddha, was largely, and I think you all have covered it well. You've got your ears to the ground very well, I must say, is the fact that between the 15th and 30th, we saw a bit -- and it's not that we didn't address it Rohit had already anticipated with his team. We had about 700 [ retailers ]. I'll allow him to talk through it and what we did. But what happened was, I think, obviously, there were many more questions to be asked and a very short time in which we could answer, and it is a much larger universe. Remember, we cater to about 20,000 outlets and our active is almost 14,000 on a monthly basis. So it's a large number of the 700 that came in. So obviously, it took a while. But by the second week of July, we've addressed it. Rohit and I have addressed a joint letter to all our customers saying that we stand responsible for anything until the transaction gets closed. And the JSW team, paints team has been very supportive in also acknowledging that, look, they will obviously continue all the activities, including warranty that needs to be because anyway, the warranty has been very, very low, right? So to that extent, not much. Rohit, do you want to add something? How is it in July?

Yes. So things are -- now the announcements are over and that entire anxiety is over. Over and above that, what Rajiv has just alluded, we went back to retailers, clearly assuring them. At the same time, in our B2B business, which is our project business, a lot of anxiety was there, whether the places where we are issuing warranties, will those be honored or not. Even in our retail side of a business where we do retail project, those warranties were always a question mark and which we were able to solve. Second, Rajiv already alluded on the attrition front also where even the employees got a lot of questions got answered and a lot of stability started coming back and things are moving in the right direction.

Yes. And I must say two things. First, of course, the dealer stock came down by about a week, but I think the relationship that the team has with the dealers is fantastic. And for the team, I again would like to thank Parth for coming down to our office and addressing all the sites. He addressed the entire team. And I think the team really liked the energy and the continuity and the clarity with which the answers were given and after that, we've not had any issues till now.

Okay. Sure, sir. This is helpful. And on question one.

On question one, I'll leave it to Krishna because I think -- we have a governance.

Aniruddha, as far as the question one is concerned, 30th September financials would include all the mandatory necessary disclosures as per the listing agreement and the rules. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Sir, just one accounting question. Now I guess, the powder coating will move to discontinued operations from 1st of July. So the accounting-wise, it will come as discontinued operations till the time actual -- it is not -- it doesn't get out of the our company, correct?

So there would be some amount of reclassifications which will happen. And thats that we will leave it to the auditors. And then at the same time, the management presentations, we will give a like-to-like numbers.

Yes, we'll give like-to-like numbers going forward.

We have the next question coming from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie.

So Rajiv, I wanted to kind of just check with you. I'm sorry if I missed this earlier, but could you give me a sense on what's happening on the ground on competition? I do understand that you're trying to juggle the transition, but there is also a competitive landscape that has changed. The competitor has been trying to take away -- influence our dealers, distributors. So if you could give me a sense on how things have panned out? There were some comments about -- by some other peers saying that dealers are coming back to them. Would love to know your take on these things, please?

So Avi, let me ask Rohit because he is right now in the [indiscernible]

So first so we -- for us--there are definitely -- there is an aggressive competition, which has entered. But by and large, thanks to all the work which we have put in, we were able to protect our channel largely. We had one good thing which was an advantage to us is we had a different route to market, which is our distributor model. And first, we did distributor 1.0 and now 2.0, which is to do with distributor or a micro distributor. As a result, we kept on expanding. So that particular aspect is there. The second thing, which is wherever we saw an action, we were very quick in talking to our retailers and bringing them back to the fold, what we called a program called [indiscernible]. And that is where within a quarter, we were able to bring back. So for last 4, 5 quarters, I would be saying, the last quarter -- 5 quarters, competition was there. This aggressive competitor was there, but we were able to do better than the market. So this is just a [indiscernible].

So Avi, let me just add. Look, if I break India into 4 regions, North, West, East and South, I think the impact of the new competition was highest in South, followed by a bit in West, Punjab in North largely, and East has been very minimal. We have the highest market share in East. So to that extent, the impact in East has been more for consumption and some internal execution issues that nothing to do with new competition. It's existing competitors, particularly the #2 player, et cetera, who had been doing well there. We believe that we -- again, to get back to the top 2 growth, that's an area that we need to work, and that's one of the reasons Rohit is there, right? If you look at South, we believe that in some of the states, we've really come back. We have negligible presence in Andhra and Telangana, and we've taken a huge bet of now after many years, putting down specific resources in specific towns to start to win back. And Rohit is really trying to drive that aggressively. To the point that you made that some players said that, look, it is true. We -- if you look at in some of the markets where -- competitive intensity was very high, we had dealer attrition. But like Rohit said, we saw this coming about 2 months ago. It's just that we've not articulated because our belief is that we are focused on our stuff in terms of how we can win back customers, and it's not about the statements we make. It's about the runs we score. So we -- yes, in some of the places, as I said, the competitive intensity of the most aggressive player amongst the newcomers, obviously, has tapered off a bit, and that's why dealers are coming back and a quotient of business has come back. But remember that for us, our strength has been premium, and we continue to do well. Our challenge has been the mid end economy, and that's why we are strengthening ourselves without diluting margins significantly. So that's an area that we are working on. We are working in terms of our entire propositions as far as painter and contractor. And as I said, we made a significant investment, right, with a top-tier firm to really start this entire digital -- digitization on the lead management, which is going to drive both top line and help us in productivity over a long-term period. So those are some of the things Avi that we've done. And I believe that we've taken -- like the way we took distributor, which is a road less traveled, I believe in some of these things, we have taken a road less traveled. But I do believe that in a short period of time, you will start seeing the results.

Got it, Rajiv. Very clear, very clear on that. Just if I may -- just as we move now you had Akzo, which obviously is very, very premium, gives a particular culture of how you essentially go about approaching dealers. And then you had JSW, who has been, in a way, a new entrant of sorts who's been also very, very aggressive on the ground. I do appreciate the joining of strengths that are coming in over here. My -- and I'm not sure if how you -- one of the things that I worry about is the cultures, organization cultures. So would love to hear your thoughts on how would you look to -- what, in your opinion, would be the way forward to best integrate these different beasts, if I may say, with -- while ensuring that they run together as a team. Sorry, I'm not sure -- I'm just trying to understand how would you approach this? I'm not looking for an exact answer here but would love to know your thoughts on how you're looking at this.

Yes. Look, culture is created by members in the team. I think -- I think as a leader of the person who is owning the organization, Parth has clearly outlined that -- ultimately, it's about winning in the market and JSW being a very aggressive and dynamic group, the expectation from unlocking the value of brand Dulux and significantly putting investments behind it is to unleash -- is that, look, we believe that, look, if the brand is unleashed to its true potential, the ability of the brand to unlock growth will be significantly higher. And I completely agree, having run this now for over a decade in 2 stints, right, that the constraint for us is as a global firm, and it's something that my global CEO said, so it's not something that I think which is different. The global firms are constrained by percentages, percent margin, percent EBITDA, right, not absolutes, which Indian firms look at. So I think that's the first. I think coming to your culture, I think a lot of it is defined by the people who run the organization. As I said, Avi, to a earlier question, we've got people who are well qualified on both sides of the table. And remember that JSW Paints being a new company has got good, great talent from companies like Unilever, even from Akzo Nobel, by the way, right? So I think it's not -- it's -- to me, having done this exercise in my years of Unilever, I've been fortunate to do the Brooke Bond Lipton integration. I've done the Unilever Brooke Bond Lipton integration. I've done -- I've looked Castrol BP and Airtel combining of two circles. Ultimately, as long as performance gets rewarded and you put a transparent system in place and the metrics are high. People love to be a part of a winning organization. So culture to me is going to be defined by how we sort of win. What I can reassure you is that JSW has got the highest standards of governance, right? And you'd be pleasantly surprised and what we saw when we walked in -- I was myself to be very honest, delighted to see speak up cards in almost every room that team the team rooms where vendors and suppliers meet. That tells you the transparency of the organization and organization for the future. And I think it's a right fit and for us, for me, then culture becomes something which becomes a day job.

I look forward for the disclosures on ex powder business. In particular, if it's possible, Krishna, whenever you do that, give us a sense on the royalty bit because that unfortunately will not get till the end of the year. That's my only request. That's all. Thank you very much.

Our first text question comes from the line of Mrunmayee Jogalekar from Asit C. Mehta Investment. And the question is, as the quarter -- as the next quarter onwards, financials will be Akzo powder coating business. Can you give color on the margin profile going ahead?

So next quarter disclosures would be in line with the Ind AS and which will be Akzo powder coatings business for the current year. The statements are likely to happen. As far as the margin profile for going ahead is a forward-looking statement, which we refrain from giving it to the investors. Thank you.

Yes. But again, we don't want to give guidances, but when you mean color, look, it's -- you remember that the highest margin business, as I've always said, is the vehicle refinish business. So it's not that the profile is going to get dramatically changed because of the separation of the powder business. We can definitely mention that. There are some obviously, some advantages, but it's -- look, the other businesses are also pretty strong.

Our next text question comes from the line of Dhiraj Dave. And the question is, any view dividend distribution policy? Would it be same as previous level distribution?

Same. There's no change in the dividend distribution policy. What we've done is -- as we wanted to always delight our shareholders as a part of the -- our promise to the shareholders that, look, once the Akzo Nobel decided to buy out the powder coating and the IRC business, net of the IP rights and the brand Dulux rights that we've got, the net of that -- net the taxes is the dividend that's got distributed amongst all the shareholders in toto, right? So there will be no change to the policy, and we continue to hopefully delight the customer -- all our shareholders as we move forward.

Our next question comes from the line of Rohan [ Khandare ], an investor. And the question is, what will be the revenue guidance for FY '26 and the EBITDA guidance?

Look, I've said this -- look, we -- I was hoping that we would do a double digit, but obviously, given the first quarter, I have to be a little lukewarm. We've got an aggressive number, which caters to about a high single-digit growth. That's what we are now focused on. I think the ball is rolling on that, right? So as far as the EBITDA guidance, I don't want to give anything. We will be in the same range that we've been over the last 2, 3 quarters. We are not seeing a huge further dilution coming in. That's what I would like to say. Where we have a bit of a challenge is the fact that -- and I think this is true for the industry and different players are managing it differently is the fact that there is -- obviously, we are -- been a antidumping duty, which has a bit of an impact on all the paint players. But fortunately, we still -- we've still got a bit of stock cover that will last hopefully until end of August, September and that's when we'll have to look at in terms of how we manage. But there's no -- it's not going to be very detrimental from what we've seen so far. Krishna, you want to add something? Yes.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today.

Look, I would like to thank all of you to all the shareholders, all the participants in the call. We continue to stay focused. I think from our perspective, execution is key, getting the momentum back and moving into becoming the top 2 players on incremental growth and growth is the key that's -- as I say, growth is elixir of life, yes. What I would say is, look, if I look at the last quarter, because of the month of June, I think it was a bit of a sort of ephemeral sort of a performance. But I do think that if I were to look at from a long-term perspective, that's a bit of a blip because of something which is external, which is a strategic review, right? And if I just were to keep it aside, I would only say that, look, I think the momentum the team is putting in the best they can. We are absolutely excited to be a part of the JSW family, and we are looking forward to the completion of all the due diligence, CCI approvals, [indiscernible] and we look forward to all your support and good wishes as we move ahead. Thank you very much. Wish all of you a great evening, and we'll stay connected. If you have any further questions at any point of time, do feel free to reach out to Rajiv Jha, our Company Secretary. Thank you. Good day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, with this, we conclude today's webinar. On behalf of Akzo Nobel India, we thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.