IIFCL profit surges to 80% to Rs 514 cr in Q4 due to reduction in bad loans

India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) on Friday reported an 80 per cent jump in standalone net profit to Rs 514 crore for the fiscal ended March 2022, helped by the increase in lending and reduction of bad loans.

The state-owned infrastructure finance company had earned a net profit of Rs 285 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company recorded a 10-fold rise in profit compared to Rs 51 crore recorded in 2019-20, thereby, continuing its turnaround performance, IIFCL managing director PR Jaishankar said while announcing annual financial numbers.

The company continued to add value as its networth increased to Rs 11,737 crore in 2021-22 from Rs 10,654 crore in the preceding fiscal.

During the year, he said, the company posted record performance with the highest ever sanctions and disbursements at Rs 25,120 crore and Rs 10,445 crore, respectively.

In terms of percentage growth, he said, loan sanctions increased by 20 per cent and disbursement by 10 per cent.

Going forward, he said, the company has scope to double sanctions and disbursement, given the government's focus on infrastructure development.

However, Jaishankar said, the prevailing market conditions and other external factors would guide the business growth.

With regard to asset quality, IIFCL has brought down gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to 9.22 per cent from 13.9 per cent a year ago.

The net NPA of the company too declined to 3.65 per cent from 5.39 per cent in the year-ago period.

The provision coverage ratio (PCR) in the last fiscal increased to 62.75 per cent from 61.24 per cent, thereby, improving the robustness of the company's balance sheet, Jaishankar said.

The company's stance of aggressively pursuing recoveries has yielded the highest ever recovery of around Rs 780 crore during FY 2021-22 compared to Rs 618 crore during the previous fiscal, he added.

Taking its developmental role further, IIFCL for the first time, ventured into investment in infrastructure bonds, being issued by project companies during the year, he said, adding it has invested Rs 975 crore in project bonds, which includes Rs 325 crore in bonds issued by a renewable energy InvIT.

"IIFCL's investment in bonds would not only lead to further improvement in the company's asset quality but would also boost the availability of longer-tenor debt finance for infrastructure projects," he said.

IIFCL is also eyeing lending opportunities to Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) this year and aims to further strengthen our balance sheet and improve its asset quality, he added.

Till March 2022, Jaishankar said, IIFCL has participated in 650 projects with a total outlay of over Rs 11.30 lakh crore, providing financial assistance to over 28 per cent of PPP projects in the country.