HDFC Q4 net soars 16%

A 24 per cent rise in net interest income enabled Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd to report a 16 per cent rise in its net profit during January-March 2012 at Rs 1,326 crore, compared with Rs 1,142 crore in the corresponding period last year.

In the quarter under review, the net interest income or the difference between interest earned and paid out stood at Rs 1,866.76 crore as against Rs 1,510.6 crore reported in the year-ago period.

The total income of the country’s largest mortgage finance provider increased 29.4 per cent during the quarter — to Rs 4,885 crore from Rs 3,774 crore.

The 1994-founded company, though, reported a stiff fall in profit on the sale of investments to Rs 79 crore compared with Rs 134 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

During 2011-12, net profit went up 16.6 per cent to Rs 4,123 crore from Rs 3,535 crore. The company has proposed a dividend of Rs 11 per share.

During 2011-12, HDFC grew its loan book by 20.3 to Rs 1.4 lakh crore from Rs 1.17 lakh-crore reported in the year-ago period. The average size of individual loans stood at Rs 19.5 lakh as against Rs 18.6 lakh a year ago. Consequently, total borrowing of the corporation too went up 21 per cent to Rs 1.39 lakh crore.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to total loans stood at 0.74 per cent for the whole year, as against 0.77 per cent reported in the same period a year ago. This is the 29th consecutive quarter-end at which the percentage of NPAs has been lower than the corresponding quarter in the previous year, HDFC said in a release.

The total assets as on March 31 stood at Rs 1.67 lakh crore — up 20 per cent from Rs 1.39 lakh crore reported a year ago.