India, Sept. 23 -- For years, Astral has largely been seen as a pipes and plumbing company. But that picture is changing steadily. A smaller part of the business is now growing at a pace that is difficult to ignore, while Astral's core plumbing franchise continues to remain the much larger revenue contributor.

That raises an interesting question: if the newer businesses continue to scale faster than plumbing, could they eventually become large enough to change how Astral itself is structured?

The answer may depend less on the demerger proposal and more on how quickly this business can build scale and profitability. With a market cap of Rs 37,100crore, the shares of Astral Ltd are trading at Rs 1,383 and are trading at a PE of 63 comp...