Great discussion. I thought Hi-tech would be some small unit catering only to asian paints. However, they have plants at 15+ locations (May be all of them near asian paint plants) & few more customers apart from asian paints.
So obviously, they would be the preferred partner for asian paints & not only that when they buy it from other players including mold-tek, they would bargain hard.
Management might have sensed this in advanced that’s why they have gone big for Birla paints. Remember, still Asian paints constitute around 25% business of mold tek. Management gave hint about tough pricing pressure in paints but when specifically asked about loosing market share for asian paints, they denied citing other issues in previous concalls.
May be someone can ask question specifically about this issue in upcoming concall to get more clarity.