JSW Dulux Q1 FY27: Revenue ₹965 Cr, EBITDA Margin 11.9%, and a 10:1 Share Split on the Ballot

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1. At a Glance

A company incorporated in 1954 spent this quarter answering to a name it has had for roughly eight months. Consolidated revenue for the June 2026 quarter came in at ₹965.0 crore against ₹995.1 crore a year earlier, a decline of 3.0%. Operating profit was ₹115.1 crore against ₹134.5 crore, down 14.4%. Net profit was ₹79.7 crore against ₹91.0 crore, down 12.4%. EPS: ₹17.50.

Those comparisons come with an asterisk the company itself attached. Per the filing notes, the June 2026 quarter is not comparable with prior periods because of the slump sale of the Powder Coatings business division and the International Research Center division during the September 2025 quarter. Management’s like-for-like base strips those out and produces a different set of arrows entirely: revenue up 18.8% on ₹812.0 crore, EBITDA up 14.7%, and volume growth stated at 25%.

So the quarter arrives with two scoreboards, both of them official, both in the same press release, and a reader is expected to hold both in their head simultaneously — which is the sort of mental gymnastics corporate India usually reserves for explaining “adjusted” anything.

Elsewhere on the calendar: the board approved a 10:1 stock split subject to postal ballot, three GST and income-tax matters landed in the announcements feed inside four months, and two senior executives filed resignations in August. The trailing multiple sits at 36.9, which happens to be exactly the industry P/E — the rarest coincidence in Indian markets, and the only number in this article that needs no explanation at all.

2. Introduction

Akzo Nobel India Limited was incorporated in 1954 and, per the company description, is in the business of manufacturing, trading and selling paints and related products, alongside providing research and development services to its holding company and other group companies. For seven decades the letterhead said one thing. In December 2025 it started saying another.

Per the board meeting outcome of 2 February 2026, JSW Paints Limited acquired 61.2% of the company on 10 December 2025, and the same set of results carried exceptional income of ₹18,463 million. A postal ballot concluded on 2 March 2026 approved the appointment of Parth Jindal as Chairman, Shantanu Khosla as an independent director, the redesignation of Rajiv Rajgopal as Joint Managing Director & CEO, and the rename to JSW Dulux. The corporate identity number stayed exactly as it was: L24292WB1954PLC021516. The registered office is still in Kolkata. The paint is still Dulux. Only the parent changed, which in Indian corporate life is roughly like changing surname, address and passport photo while keeping the Aadhaar.

The mechanical consequence of the transaction shows up throughout the numbers. The powder coatings business and the International Research Center were carved out by slump sale in the September 2025 quarter, which is why the quarterly revenue line reads 995, 835, 894, 883, 965 across the last five quarters — a series that looks like a company that shrank and then grew, because that is precisely what happened to the perimeter.

Management, on the concall, described the integration programme as “Project Akshaya,” aimed at reducing duplication and funding growth initiatives, with ₹2.4 crore of savings realised in Q1 FY27 against a three-year roadmap. Two paint companies now make each other’s paint: per management, JSW Paints is made in the Gwalior factory and JSW Dulux is made in a JSW Paints plant, with some volume also made in Mohali. ERP migration is targeted by the end of the year, partly because the transitional services arrangement with the erstwhile AkzoNobel digital ecosystem runs on a clock.

3. Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?

They sell colour, and then they sell the promise that the colour will still be there in fifteen years.

The decorative business offers paints, lacquers and varnishes, plus tinting machines, colour concepts and training programmes for the building, infrastructure and renovation industry. The Dulux Assurance warranty programme covers 17 products across home interiors and exteriors, with coverage on applicable products running up to 15 years. A fifteen-year warranty on a wall is a genuinely strange thing to underwrite — you are guaranteeing the behaviour of a chemical film against monsoons, landlords, and children with crayons.

Then the portfolio widens considerably. Automotive & Specialty Coatings covers automotive OEM coatings, consumer electronics coatings, vehicle refinishes and specialty coatings. Marine & Protective Coatings, under the International brand, protects assets both in and out of water across oil and gas, power, infrastructure and wind energy. Industrial Coatings runs coil and extrusion coatings, packaging coatings, wood finishes and adhesives, serving roofings, building structures, aluminium composite panels, domestic appliances and metal packaging including food cans, caps, closures and aerosols. Somewhere in a warehouse there is a drum of something that will end up on the inside of a can of chickpeas, and it came from the same company that sells emulsion for a drawing room.

Brand roster for industrial users: Interpon, Sikkens, Butanox, Dissolvine, Dry-Flo, Elotex, Kramasil, Levasil. Consumer-facing: Dulux, and Dulux Professional lines such as Solitaire Stain Resist and Weather Shield Ultra Clean. The industrial names sound like they were assembled by a committee that had run out of vowels; the retail names sound like a Sunday afternoon. Same company, two entirely different naming philosophies, both correct for their audience.

Physically: five sites with aggregate 305 MLPA capacity, one R&D centre in Mumbai, 1,387 employees, roughly 22,000 retailers and about 4,000 B2B customers, presence across more than 5,000 towns. Per the investor presentation, market position is #4 with 5% share in decorative paints and 7% in industrial. Per FY24 disclosure, revenue was roughly 97% sale of products, 2% services and 1% other