22 Jan 2022

Piping it hot. Astral— where success comes piped in

The story is about plumbing. If you think that’s humdrum, wait. It gets exciting when superstars Salman Khan, Allu Arjun and Ranveer Singh endorse the product and then the brand is associated with the IPL.

It is the Astral story. A household name in India and a torchbearer for what remained an unorganised sector for decades, the plumbing and construction materials player, Astral Ltd, has become the industry’s charm and an investors’ delight. Here’s how.

The shareholders’ wealth has multiplied by 4x in last five years with its share price zooming from ₹453 in June 2018 to ₹1,821.35 as on May 31, 2023 on NSE and about 15x from the IPO of ₹115 in 2007. And the confidence booster for the investors is Astral’s stupendous almost 100x growth in revenues from ₹54 crore in fiscal 2006, to ₹5,185 crore for year ended March 31, 2023. Net profits have jumped by 118x from ₹4 crore to ₹472 crore during the period. The diluted earnings per share (EPS) now stands at ₹17 (at face value of ₹1 each) versus ₹7.29 (at face value of ₹ 10 each) at the time of company’s IPO.