Power Finance Corp Q4 profit climbs 58% to Rs 1,294 crore

The company had a profit after tax of Rs 818 crore in the year-ago period

Helped by higher income and lower borrowing expenses, Power Finance Corp today reported 58% jump in profit after tax at Rs 1,294 crore for the three months ended March, 2013.

The state-run major, which primarily lends to power sector, had a profit after tax of Rs 818 crore in the year-ago period.

The profit after tax figure includes provisioning of about Rs 133 crore as required under existing norms for non-banking financial companies.

In the latest fourth quarter, PFC saw its income rising by 27% to Rs 4,670 crore. The same stood at Rs 3,684 crore in the year-ago period.

"We had higher interest income, lower borrowing costs and increase in spread, which resulted in increased profit," PFC Director (Finance) R Nagarajan said.

For the full year ended March 2013, the company's profit after tax climbed 46% to Rs 4,420 crore. In the comparable period, the figure was at Rs 3,302 crore.

Overall income went up by 32% to Rs 17,273 crore in 2012-13 period from Rs 13,037 crore in the year-ago period.

Announcing the 2012-13 financial results here, PFC Chairman and Managing Director Satnam Singh said the company's gross NPA (Non Performing Assets) came down in the last financial year.

Gross NPA declined to about 0.71% of the total assets in last fiscal from 1.04% in 2011-12 period.

Singh also noted that there was no addition to the NPA side in the March quarter.

PFC's loan assets touched Rs 1,60,367 crore at the end of March this year.

Last fiscal, PFC disbursed loans to the tune of Rs 45,151 crore, which is higher than Rs 39,818 crore given out in 2011-12 -period.

The entity plans to raise about Rs 44,000 crore in the current financial year.

Meanwhile, Singh said that coal supplies to power plants witnessed an increase of about 10% in 2012-13.