Muthoot Finance declares interim dividend of Rs 20/share; stock rises 4%

Shares of Muthoot Finance gained 4 per cent at Rs 1,206.40 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company's board of directors approved payment of an interim dividend of Rs 20 per equity share..

Shareholders, who are entitled as on close of business hours on April 23, 2021, would be entitled to receive the interim dividend, the company said. The interim dividend will be paid to the shareholders within 30 days from the date of declaration, it said, in a filing to stock exchanges. READ THE EXCHANGE FILING HERE

At 9:56 AM, the gold loan financier's stock was trading 3.83 per cent higher at Rs 1,204 as compared to 0.6 per cent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. Around 3.3 lakh shares have changed hands on the NSE and BSE, combined, so far.

Muthoot Finance had reported a net profit of Rs 1,006.6 crore during the quarter ended December 31, 2020 as compared to Rs 861.04 crore, a year ago. Revenue rose to Rs 3,000.78 crore from Rs 2,588.4 crore, a year ago.

The consolidated loan assets of the Group grew by 28 per cent at Rs 55,800 crore during nine months of 2020-21 as against last year of Rs 43,436 crore. Consolidated profit was up 20 per cent at Rs 2,795 crore during 9MFY21 as against last year of Rs 2,333 crore.

During the quarter, the company's active customers crossed five million while the gold loan portfolio rose 7 per cent, sequentially, to Rs 49,622 crore.

Last month, rating agency Icra had upgraded ratings on the company's long-term debt facilities from ‘AA(Stable)’ to ‘AA+(Stable)’.

“The rating upgrade factors in the sustained healthy financial performance of Muthoot Finance Limited (MFL) along with the scale-up in the overall portfolio which was largely led by the gold loans business. MFL’s gold loan book has more than doubled over the last 5 years to Rs. 49,622 crore as in December 2020 and accounted for about 90% of its overall consolidated portfolio. The credit costs in the gold loan business have been under control, which uplifts the consolidated earnings performance," Icra said in its rating rationale.