DHFL eyes 25-30% loan growth in FY12

Private sector housing finance company Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) is hopeful of posting a 25-30% growth in home loan disbursements in the current fiscal despite sticky real estate market, a top company official said here today.

"We expect 25-30% growth in home loan disbursements in the current fiscal and don't see any fall in demand," DHFL Chairman and Managing Director Kapil Wadhawan told reporters on the sidelines of launching of the second real estate fund by the company's venture capital arm, Arthveda Fund.

The company's loans grew 28.06% to Rs 2,138.6 crore in the September quarter, up from Rs 1,670 crore in the year-ago period. Similarly, sanctions rose 39.86% to Rs 3,112 crore in this period, against Rs 2,225 crore compared to the previous year.

Referring to defaults, Wadhawan said the firm was not facing any rise in delinquencies despite repeated rate hikes. "We don't see any pressure on the loan book as of now and are hopeful of closing this year with a gross non-performing assets below 1%," Wadhawan said.

He also said though the cost of borrowing has gone up for the NBFC, most of the rising costs had been passed on to the end-users.

The company is also planning to raise around Rs 500 crore of capital to support its future business growth.

"We are looking at raising around Rs 500 crore of equity capital but are yet to finalise the type of instruments through which we will raise, that may be a QIP or a rights issue among others," he said.

Amid reports that the promoters of the company, Wadhawan family, was looking to dilute their stake to raise capital from some PE players, he said it is an ongoing process and the company is constantly looking at raising debt capital.

DHFL posted 23% drop in its net profit to Rs 71.89 crore in the second quarter of current fiscal, compared to Rs 93.47 crore in the same period last year. However, its total income grew 78% to Rs 588.97 crore in Q2 compared to Rs 330.85 crore in the corresponding period last year.