PFC Q4 profits soar 58 percent

State-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Thursday reported a 58 percent jump in net profit at Rs.1,294 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, on the back of higher income and lower borrowing expenses.

The company registered a net profit of Rs.818 crore in the same period of the last fiscal.

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

The power sector financier's income rose 27 percent to Rs.4,670 crore for the quarter in question, as compared to Rs.3,684 crore in the year-ago period.

For the financial year, PFC's profit after tax rose 46 percent to Rs.4,420 crore, as against Rs.3,302 crore for the previous fiscal.

PFC's loan assets touched Rs.160,367 crore at the end of March 2013. It disbursed loans worth Rs.45,151 crore in the last financial year, compared to the Rs.39,818 crore lent out in 2011-12.

PFC's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) came down to about 0.71 percent of the total assets in last financial year, from 1.04 percent in 2011-12 period, said PFC chairman Satnam Singh.

Further, there was no addition to NPAs in the March quarter.