This smallcap proxy stock is well insulated from UltraTech's shock to the cables & wire industry
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. First, it was paints and now cables & wires. Aditya Birla Group's entry with Birla Opus took away the sheen from leading paint companies in India.
Barely three quarters after its launch, it has completed 90% of planned outlay - ₹9,000 crore of capex. By the end of FY25, it is targeting a high single-digit market share. It is expected to be the second largest player in terms of installed capacity and brand visibility in decorative paints, an industry estimated at ₹76,000 crore.
Behemoths like Asian Paints are still dealing with this shock. A similar trajectory could unfold in the cable and wire industry as another Birla group company - UltraTech Cement, eyes this segment. The Indian market for wires and cables is estimated at ₹84500 crore (FY24, source: RR Kabel), expected to grow at 12% CAGR (FY23-FY27), with branded players commanding 74% market share in FY24, and expected to corner 80% by FY27.
The industry is well set to grow. Rise in infrastructure investments, power transmission, real estate and construction boom, smart cities, urbanization, electrification and renewable energy, are some of the tailwinds. Over the next two years, UltraTech Cement has approved a capex of ₹1800 crore for wire and cables to further extend its footprint in the construction value chain.
The target areas include residential, commercial, infrastructure, and industrial applications. With other group companies like Hindalco to support raw material needs (copper and aluminium are key raw materials) and potential distribution synergies through existing business of UltraTech Building Solutions, this could be a potential disruptor to watch out for. No wonder the stocks of leaders in this space fell in
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