India’s JK Cement to Enter Paint Business, to Invest Rs 6 Billion

JK Cement Ltd, a leading manufacturer of wall putty and grey cement in India, announced that it will make its foray into the paints business.

“The board of directors of the company in their board meeting “approved entering into paint business through a wholly owned subsidiary, formation of new wholly owned subsidiary and investment in the said wholly owned subsidiary”, J K Cement said in an exchange filing.

The wholly owned subsidiary would undertake manufacturing, selling, trading, importing and exporting and otherwise dealing in all types of paints and allied products and services, it said.

JK Cement said its board has approved an investment of up to Rs 6 billion, spread over the first five years, in the subsidiary.

The formation of the wholly owned subsidiary will enable the organisation to focus solely on paints business, it said.

JK Cement is one of India’s leading cement and building products manufacturers. Its portfolio spans across grey cement, white cement and other value-added products.

It is a leading manufacturer of wall putty in the world and the third largest manufacturer of white cement, globally, with a total white cement capacity of 1.20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and wall putty capacity of 1.2 MTPA.

In the last two years, Aditya Birla Group company Grasim Industries and JSW Group also announced their entry in the paints space, which is dominated by the likes of Asian Paints, Berger Paints and Nerolac.