Indiabulls Housing Finance profit plunges 16 pct in Dec quarter

The second largest pure-play mortgage player Indiabulls Housing Finance Thursday reported a 16 per cent decline in December quarter net at Rs 985.51 crore, primarily due to a high base in the same period last year due to one-time gains. The company attributed the fall in net income to the one-time gain in the December 2017 quarter, when it had sold a third of its stake in Oak North Bank to GIC of Singapore for Rs 767.78 crore, booking a one-time profit of Rs 542.44 crore, boosting its bottom line.

It also the bottom line was hit as there was a hit of Rs 217 crore on account of redemption of long-term debt mutual funds during that reporting quarter. The total revenue increased 23.2 per cent to Rs 4,480 crore, while net interest income grew at higher 29.7 per cent to 2,026 crores during the reporting quarter.

The company said it is targeting net profit growth of up to 16 per cent in the current fiscal year and take it up further to 19 per cent next fiscal. There has been a 16.2 per cent growth in loans in the first nine months of the fiscal to Rs 1.24 lakh crore.

There was a huge jump in the expected credit losses provisions in stage 1 and 2 of gross NPAs to Rs 673 crore, as under Ind AS accounting requires companies to start making provisions once there is non-payment at 90 days. Gross non-performing asset stood at 0.79 per cent of total advances in the quarter under review.

The company set aside Rs 330 crore as provisions for its exposure to crippled realty major Supertech even though the asset is standard on its books. It also exuded the confidence of recovering Rs 200 crore of construction finance loan from Palais Royale, an NPA, during the ongoing quarter, and continue getting paid for four more years till March 2022.

It said the company got a board mandate to issue both secured and unsecured NCDs worth up to Rs 25,000 crore and Rs 1,000 crore, respectively, on a private placement basis in one or more tranches. The company also declared an interim dividend of Rs 10 for 2018-19.

As a result of the crisis in the NBFC sector following the IL&FS crisis, the Gagan Banga-led company's liability profile displayed a much lower reliance on three-month commercial papers and bank loans, and a higher reliance on sell downs, the lender said in a regulatory filing. The company scrip closed 1.28 per cent down at Rs 665.35 on the BSE, despite a massive 1.87 per cent rally on the benchmark.

(With inputs from agencies.)