L&T Finance Q3FY18 consolidated net profit up 42% to Rs 3.84 billion

Company to continue consolidating subsidiaries and scaling down wholesale lending

L&T Finance Holdings Ltd’s (L&TFH) consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 2017 rose by 42 per to Rs 3.84 billion on sharp rise in fee income and control over expenses. It had posted a net profit of Rs 2.7 billion in third quarter of 2016-17 (FY17).

Total Income rose by 25 per cent to Rs 27 billion in Q3Fy18. The fee income saw 93 per cent jump at Rs 3.55 billion.

The loan and advances comprising focused businesses – rural, housing and wholesale – and defocused lines rose by 23 per cent to Rs 759 billion in 12 months ended December 2017.

Its Rural loan segment saw a 48 per cent at Rs 141 billion, and housing piece reported 49 per cent growth in loans at Rs 171 billion.

Its wholesale business grew by 14 per cent at Rs 429 billion at end of December 2017. L&TFH have tried to bring down their wholesale portfolio over the past few quarters, wherein wholesale financing now constitutes 56 per cent of the total portfolio, from an earlier share of 60 per cent.

 The company since FY2017 has implemented plans to consolidate some of its legal subsidiaries, with three subsidiaries being merged in FY2017, while another two were merged in FY2018. This has helped the company to bring down cost to income ratio 23.2 per cent December 2017 from 24.91 per cent a year ago.

Meanwhile, the company board is meeting on January 31, 2018 to consider plans for raising capital to support business growth. D Dubhashi, its managing director and chief executive officer said while fresh capital will get deployed across business segment, the thrust will be on supporting retail segment (rural and housing).

L&T FH stock closed one per cent down at 176 per share on Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday, January 25, 2018.