Bajaj Fin hits new high on highest ever quarterly PAT of Rs 1,614 cr in Q3

For the quarter under review, the NBFC logged a consolidated net interest income of Rs 4,537 crore, a rise of 42%, from Rs 3,206 crore reported in the December quarter of the previous fiscal.

Shares of Bajaj Finance surged 4 per cent, to hit a high of Rs 4,383.05, also its fresh lifetime high, on the BSE on Wednesday after the non-banking finance company (NBFC) reported its highest ever quarterly consolidated net profit at Rs 1,614.11 crore in the December quarter of FY20 (Q3FY20), a jump of 52 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from a net profit of Rs 1,059.56 crore (Q3FY19).

At 2:14 pm, the stock was quoting Rs 4,380.25, up 3.97 per cent, as against a 0.76 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. A total of 3.17 millino shares have changed hands on the counter of NSE and BSE till the time of writing this report.

For the quarter under review, the NBFC logged a consolidated net interest income (NII) of Rs 4,537 crore, a rise of 42 per cent, from Rs 3,206 crore reported in the December quarter of the previous fiscal.

The numbers beat Street estimates by significant margin. Analysts at Kotak Securities, for instance, had pegged the net profit at Rs 1,556.5 crore, while the NII was estimated at Rs 3,429.8 crore. 

Further, assets under management (AUM) jumped 35 per cent YoY to Rs 1, 45,092 crore for the quarter under review. The number stood at Rs 1,07,507 crore in Q3FY19. These included 7.67 million new loans extended during the quarter. 

"AUM growth was granular for most lines of businesses in the company (YoY growth for Consumer B2B sales finance 7%, Consumer B2C 43%, Rural B2B 21%, Rural B2C 58%, SME 32%, Mortgages 44%, Auto Finance 51%, Commercial lending 15%, Securities lending 5%)," it said in a statement.

It said, the consumer B2B sales finance had a slow quarter on the back of "significant slowdown in consumption categories". This was in addition to the NBFC's cautious stance in digital products financing.

"Loan losses and provisions (expected credit loss) for 03 FY20 was Rs 831 crore, up 84 per cent YoY, as against Rs 451 crore in Q3FY19. During the quarter, the company has made an accelerated provision of Rs 85 crore in its loan against securities portfolio. Adjusted for this, loan losses and provisions (expected credit loss) for Q3FY20 was Rs 746 crore," it management said.

The asset quality remained stable with gross non-performing assets (GNPA) and Net NPA coming in at 1.61 per cent and 0.70 per cent, respectively. Sequentially, GNPA was flat, while NNPA moved up by 5 bps. The total slippages come in at Rs 936 crore, as against Rs 786 crore logged in the September quarter of FY20.