L&T Finance profit inches up 10% to Rs 206 cr

L&T Finance Holdings today reported a 10 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 206 crore in the three months to March, driven down by an accelerated provisions of Rs 96 crore.
For the full fiscal, the financial services of the engineering major L&T reported a 23 per cent growth in consolidated profit at Rs 736 crore.
The full year profit excludes Rs 116 crore which the company had received in the first quarter of FY 2015 on account of sale of its 4.5 per cent stake in City Union Bank.
The consolidated total income rose to Rs 1,670.76 crore for the quarter to March-end, 2015 from Rs 1,431.36 crore a year ago, it said in a filing to the BSE.

"In a very challenging environment, we had a very good year. The year as a whole we had 23 per cent growth in the profit and for the quarter it is 10 per cent, which needs to be understood in the context of accelerated provisions of Rs 96 crore which we have made in the March quarter," company chairman and managing director YM Deosthalee told reporters.
The accelerated provisions include impact of increase of standard asset provision to 0.3 per cent from 0.25 per cent, income reversal on 150-180 days past due assets and voluntary provisions on select stress accounts, he said.

Net interest margins (NIM) improved to 5.71 per cent in the quarter from 5.62 per cent, while net interest income stood at Rs 705.56 crore, up from Rs 581.7 crore.