India's leading paint company, Asian Paints, today announced it has commenced operations partially, at its two manufacturing units in Egypt.
The company had shut down operations at the two manufacturing units last week, in the wake of the ongoing political crisis in Eygpt.
"The two plants of the company's subsidiary, SCIB Chemicals SAE, Egypt, which were shut due to prolonged curfew, have restarted the operations partially with effect from February 6, 2011," Asian Paints said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
According to sources, the company's decision to re-start the operations, however, did not suggest any improvement in the situation in the country.
Asian Paints' two manufacturing units are located at an industrial area about 50 kilometres from Cairo.
Other leading FMCG companies, Dabur and Marico, have temporarily shut down their plants in the Arab nation.
More From This Section
According to Anand Shah, Research Analyst, Elara Securities India, Egypt contributes significantly to the sales in the Middle East (ME) region for Asian Paints.
The ME region witnessed a turnover of Rs 650 crore out of the total international revenues of Rs 1,215 crore registered by the company in 2009-2010, said Shah.
Last fiscal, consolidated revenue of Asian Paints had stood at Rs 5,125 crore.
In 2002, the company had acquired controlling stake in SCIB Chemicals, one of the top five paint companies in Egypt.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Cairo and other cities of Egypt demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
The company's scrips were trading at Rs 2,519.9 per share during the afternoon trade, up 1.59 per cent from the previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange.