Higher fund cost crimps L&T Fin Q4 consolidated net at Rs187cr

L&T Finance Holding today reported a tepid 7 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 187 crore despite a 20 per cent rise in advances, as finance cost jumped 50 per cent.
Had it not been for the high cost of funding, the net profit would have grown 47 per cent to Rs 414 crore, group president and whole-time director N Sivaraman told PTI.
Higher advances helped the company improve its net interest margins by 30 bps to 5.6 per cent at the end of the reporting fiscal.
For the full year, net profit, excluding interest cost rose 23 per cent to Rs 1,406 crore, he added.

"Consolidated post-tax net was impacted by higher credit cost compared to previous year, which rose by a hefty 50 per cent," Sivaraman said.
For the full year the consolidated PAT (excluding exceptional items) grew by 7 per cent to Rs 597 crore and for the quarter it grew by 7 per cent to Rs 187 crore, he added.

"The slowdown in the economy continues to put pressure on the asset quality. Gross NPAs stood at 3.18 per cent at Rs 1,243 croee compared to 2.93 per cent at Rs 1,065 crore," he said, adding most of the stressed assets came from the Citi Financial portfolio, which the company had bought for Rs 700 crore recently.

Net NPAs rose to 2.29 per cent at Rs 890 crore from 2.05 per cent in the December quarter at Rs 740 crore. The company has made a provision of Rs 195 crore over and above RBI norms.
However, he expects the asset quality to improve going forward as there was only a negligible spike in fresh slippages.