Business Description
Decorative paints — the architectural coatings sold to builders, decorators and consumers — are the biggest business by some distance, followed by an adjacent group of paint-related products and services. Automotive coatings supply carmakers' paint shops, industrial coatings cover steel, appliances and coil, and a small fine-chemicals unit rounds out the portfolio. The group operates through regional platforms rather than one global brand: NIPSEA across Asia, Dunn-Edwards in the United States, DuluxGroup in Australia and New Zealand, and Betek Boya in Turkey, each keeping its own brands and local management.
Roughly nine-tenths of revenue comes from outside Japan, and China is the single largest market, so Chinese housing completions and repainting demand matter more to earnings than Japanese construction does. Raw materials — titanium dioxide, resins and solvents, all oil-linked — are the main cost swing, and the renminbi and the yen both feed through to reported numbers. Management describes the company as an "asset assembler": acquisitions are run on an autonomous decentralised model, and Singapore's Wuthelam Group is the largest shareholder. The business traces to 1881, when Japan's first paint maker was founded, and the present legal entity dates from March 1898. Unusually for a Japanese industrial, the fiscal year ends in December.
Corporate Data
| Ticker | 4612 |
|---|---|
| Exchange | Tokyo Stock Exchange |
| Size Category | TOPIX Mid400 |
| Market Segment | Prime Market |
| Sector | Chemicals |
| Head Office | 2-1-2 Oyodokita, Kita-ku, Osaka 531-8511, Japan |
| Founded | March 1898 |
| Fiscal Year End | December 31 |
| Website | Official website |