Dewan Housing net interest income up 35%

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) reported a 34.62 per cent growth in net interest income to Rs 42.46 crore for the quarter ended 31 March, 2009 against Rs 31.54 crore in the year-ago period.

For the fourth quarter, total income rose 40 per cent to Rs 206.9 crore from Rs 148 crore for the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Net profit, however, fell to Rs 21.39 crore for the quarter ended 31 March, 2009 from Rs 29.44 crore in the year-ago period, on account of a reclassifcation of venture fund income to the tune of Rs 16.99 crore into the previous year’s total income.

The housing finance company saw a fall in net non-performing assets (NPAs) to 1.03 per cent of total assets compared to 1.18 per cent at the end of the previous financial year. Gross NPAs over the same period fell from 1.57 per cent to 1.48 per cent.

For the financial year ended 31 March, 2009, the HFC registered a 40 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 91.76 crore as compared to Rs 66.59 crore at the end of the previous year, on a consolidated basis. DHFL disbursed loans worth Rs 2240.54 crore in the financial year 2008-09 as against Rs 1761.53 crore during the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 27.19 per cent. As of 31 March 2009, its asset book size was Rs 5806.93 crore.

Kapil Wadhawan, vice-chairman and managing director, said, “Last year we had started to see an increase in the cost of funding in the first two quarters. But we have started to bring down our cost of funding.” He added that the firm’s average cost of funding was now below 10 per cent.

Commenting on DHFL’s fund-raising plans, Wadhawan said, “We intend raising about Rs 3500 crore by way of debt for meeting our growth targets of almost Rs 3400 crore of incremental disbursements. We also intend coming out with a large public issue of NCDs (non-convertible debentures) anywhere between Rs 500 crore to Rs 2000 crore in the next 2 months.”