BENGALURU, July 15 (Reuters) – Indian non-bank lender HDB Financial Services posted a higher first-quarter profit on Wednesday, supported by healthy loan demand and improving asset quality.
Net profit rose about 48% to 7.85 billion rupees ($81.55 million) for the quarter ended June 30.
Indian non-banking financial companies saw healthy loan growth and broadly stable asset quality in the June quarter, analysts said, driven by steady demand for consumer, vehicle and housing loans.
HDB Financial’s consumer finance loans grew more than 21.1%, outpacing enterprise lending, which grew nearly 8% in the quarter, according to a Reuters calculations.
The company, a unit of top Indian lender HDFC Bank, said its assets under management rose 11.3% year-on-year to 1.22 trillion rupees, while net interest income – the difference between interest earned and paid – increased 11.2% to 42.62 billion rupees.
The lender’s net interest margin contracted to 7.7% from 8.2% in the first quarter and 8.4% in the year-ago period.
HDB Financial, which had grappled with elevated bad loans in the first half of the previous fiscal year, has been improving its asset quality following a more cautious approach to lending in stressed segments including unsecured business loans, commercial vehicles, and construction equipment.
Gross stage 3 loans – those overdue by more than 90 days -stood at 2.34% of total loans at the end of June, down from 2.44% at March-end.
Loan losses and provisions rose 4.1% year-on-year to 6.97 billion rupees, supporting overall profitability.
($1 = 96.2550 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
