Muthoot Finance Q4 profit slides to Rs 1,006 cr as interest income falls

Muthoot Finance on Thursday reported a marginal decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,006.23 crore for the quarter ended March as core interest income fell.

The non-banking finance company, mainly into gold loan services, had registered a net profit of Rs 1,023.76 crore in the same period a year ago.

Compared sequentially, the net profit was lower than Rs 1,043.64 crore reported in the preceding December quarter.

The company's total income during Q4 FY22 declined to Rs 3,041.14 crore from Rs 3,118.98 crore in same period of FY21, Muthoot Finance said in a regulatory filing.

The interest income was down by 3.7 per cent at Rs 2,916.87 crore from Rs 3,029.83 crore in the year-ago period.

However, for the full fiscal year 2021-22, the net profit of the gold financier grew by 5.6 per cent to Rs 4,031.32 crore from Rs 3,818.87 crore in 2020-21.

Total consolidated income during the year also rose to Rs 12,237.46 crore from Rs 11,570.20 crore.

Consolidated loan assets under management increased to Rs 64,494 crore as of March 31, 2022, up by 11 per cent from the same period a year ago.

The company said it has declared a dividend of 200 per cent on face value of shares of Rs 10 each, involving a payout of Rs 803 crore.

"As the economy is gradually recovering, the demand for gold loans has been steady and we remain optimistic for the coming financial year. Gold prices have been steadily rising over the last three years and this has attracted new customers towards the product and has positively helped the sector," said George Jacob Muthoot, Chairman, Muthoot Finance.

George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director of Muthoot Finance said, "Since we are witnessing signs of recovery in the economy, the RBI rate hike may not dampen overall demand scenario and we are expecting borrowing cost to go up gradually during the year.

"Gold loans are a great option, both in times of rise and drop in economic activities. As the economy recovers and overall economic demand revives, our focus will be to make the most of the opportunities and keep innovating further."

He said the gold loan AUM grew by 11 per cent in FY22.

"We remain optimistic about a growth of 12-15 per cent in gold loan AUM for FY23 as well. With respect to our subsidiaries, following the rise in demand in the economy, the collections from microfinance, vehicle finance and home loans have improved. We aim to further improve our collections in these segments," he said.

The company has subsidiaries in affordable housing finance, microfinance, vehicle finance, insurance broking, apart from a diversified NBFC in Sri Lanka.

Stock of Muthoot Finance closed at Rs 1,137.30 apiece on BSE, up by 1.28 per cent from previous close.