Equitas Holdings Q1 profit down 25% at Rs 52.5 cr, income up at Rs 761 cr

Equitas Holdings Ltd on Monday reported a 25.3 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 52.48 crore in first quarter ended June of this fiscal. Its net profit was Rs 70.27 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Total income of the company, however, rose to Rs 787.09 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 662.52 crore in the same period of 2019, it said in a BSE filing.

Sequentially, its income fell from Rs 802.86 crore in the March 2020 quarter.

Interest income during the April-June 2020 quarter rose to Rs 761 crore from Rs 627.25 crore in the same period a year ago.

On listing of its subsidiary Equitas Small Finance in share markets, Equitas Holding said it was in the process of completing the initial public offer (IPO) of shares.

However, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic and consequent lockdowns across the country, the completion of the listing process and the IPO of shares have been delayed.

As a pre-condition to small finance bank licensing guidelines by RBI, amongst other conditions, Equitas Small Finance Bank was required to be listed within three years from the date of commencement of operations (September 5, 2016).

The management and the board of directors remain committed to completing the IPO of shares in due course, once normalcy in business operations is restored, it said.

The board has declared an interim dividend of Re 1 per equity share of Rs 10 each for the financial year 2020-21, at its meeting held on August 10, 2020.

During the quarter ended June 30, 2020, the management of the bank decided to extend benefit of charging interest on simple interest basis as against compound basis during the moratorium period, on loans that are under moratorium, the company said.

"Accordingly, based on the revised estimated cashflows, the bank has estimated and recorded a modification loss of Rs 23.37 crore during the period ended June 30, 2020," Equitas Holdings said.

It has another subsidiary Equitas Technologies Pvt Ltd, which is engaged in the business of freight aggregation.

Equitas Holdings is a non-deposit taking systemically important - core investment company.

Shares of Equitas Holdings traded 1.96 per cent higher at Rs 51.90 apiece on the BSE.