Bajaj Finance Q2 profit up 37%

Bajaj Finance, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, has posted a 37 per cent rise in its net profit in the quarter ended September.

The non-banking finance company’s (NBFC) net profit rose to ~557crore from ~408 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

The NII increased 41 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to ~1,958 crore from ~1,385 crore. Total income rose to ~3,102 crore, from ~2,341 crore in the year-ago quarter, up by 33 per cent.

The NBFC’s capital adequacy, as on September 2017, was 25.42 per cent, against 21.48 per cent on Q2 FY16, with tierI capital ratio of 19.86 per cent. The company has raised ~4,500 crore of equity capital through institutional investors during the quarter. The company’s AUM during the quarter was ~72,139 crore, up from ~52,332 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year, up by 38 per cent. This rise was due to y- o-y growth in rural lending by 137 per cent and commercial lending by 57 per cent.

Lending to small and medium businesses continued to be the slowest segment with a growth of 18 per cent over the year-ago period. Managing Director Rajeev Jain said that the SME sector is still reeling from the impact of demonetisation and will take another couple of quarters to pick up.

Bajaj Finance’s gross nonperforming assets ratio during the quarter stood at 1.68 per cent, a marginal improvement from 1.7 per cent in the previous quarter. The company’s provision coverage ratio also improved marginally from previous quarter to 70 per cent. The company plans to increase its ratio of existing customers in total loan profile to 70 per cent from the existing 60 per cent, with a view to control asset quality.

The company’s stock closed at ~1,888.85 per share, down by 3.35 per cent from previous close of ~1954.85.

The company’s stock closed at ~1,888.85 per share, down by 3.35 per cent from previous close of ~1954.85