L&T Finance Holdings consolidated Q4 net rises 29% to Rs 406 crore

L&T Finance Holdings on Thursday reported a 28.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March, 2018 to Rs 405.99 crore on the back of a 31% y-o-y growth in total income to Rs 2,938.44 crore. Its net interest margin (NIM), a key measure of profitability, improved by 27 basis points (bps) sequentially to 5.32%. The company’s asset quality showed improvement, with the gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio falling 69 bps from the end of December 2017 to 4.8%, while the net NPA ratio improved to 2.34% from 2.87% a quarter ago. The improvement in NPA ratios was across categories, except in the housing book, where the gross NPA inched up by two bps to 0.85%.

L&T Finance’s loan book grew 25.5% y-o-y to Rs 83,654 crore at the end of FY18. With the company’s focus on increasing the share of retail loans in its book, the percentage of wholesale loans dropped to 56% at the end of FY18 from 62% at the end of FY17. Housing loans accounted for 22% of the book and rural loans 20%.

During the March-ended quarter, L&T Finance clocked a 40% growth in disbursements over the corresponding period a year ago to Rs 22,664 crore. Growth in disbursements was led by rural finance, which saw a 142% y-o-y jump in new loans to Rs 4,394 crore. It was followed by the housing finance category, where disbursements grew 42% y-o-y to Rs 2,858 crore.

L&T Finance has been selling down some of the wholesale loans it originates. As a result, while disbursements in this category rose 25% y-o-y in Q4, outstanding wholesale loans on the company’s book at the end of FY18 grew by 13% y-o-y.

Larsen & Toubro Limited