Bajaj Finserv Q4 cons net profit up 3% to Rs 535 cr

New loan book in the quarter grew 58% to Rs 2,496 cr from Rs 1,583 cr in same period last year

Financial services company Bajaj Finserv on Wednesday reported a growth of 3 per cent in its consolidated net profit at Rs 535 crore in the quarter ended March 31 as against Rs 518 crore in the year-ago period.

It's lending arm, Bajaj Finance, reported a 43 per cent rise in profit after tax at Rs 449 crore in the quarter from Rs 315 crore in the same period last year, due to healthy loan growth.

"There was healthy growth in Bajaj Finance's profit and asset under management. Despite an overall soft credit growth, we did reasonably well," Bajaj Finserv CFO S Sreenivasan said.

New loan book in the quarter grew 58 per cent to Rs 2,496 crore from Rs 1,583 crore in the same period last year.

Assets under management increased by 36 per cent to Rs 60,194 crore from Rs 44,229 crore in the same period last year.

Gross non performing assets stood at 1.68 per cent and net NPA was at 0.44 per cent.

Loan losses and provisions in the quarter was Rs 290 crore as against Rs 156 crore. It took an additional charge of Rs 70 crore on account of demonetisation and non-recurring provisions.

Baja Finserv's general insurance arm, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance's, profit after tax stood at Rs 165 crore as against Rs 208 crore.

"PAT was lower due to lesser amount of profit on sale of investments in fourth quarter of FY17 and further due to inclusion of tax credits pertaining to earlier year of Rs 30 crore in PAT of fourth quarter of FY16," the company said.

Underwriting profit stood at Rs 35 crore, up 14 per cent in the quarter from Rs 30 crore last year.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance's profit after tax stood at Rs 198 crore as against Rs 232 crore last year.

Solvency ratio stood at a healthy 582 per cent as on March 31, as against the minimum regulatory requirement of 150 per cent.