Muthoot Fin Q2 net soars to Rs 454 cr

Kerala-based gold loan provider Muthoot Finance today registered a record profit of Rs 454 crore for second quarter ended September, up 53 per cent from a year ago on robust collection and good performance by subsidiary companies.
The largest gold financing company in terms of loan portfolio had made a net profit of Rs 297 crore in the July- September quarter of the previous fiscal.
Its chairman M G George Muthoot said: "Another historic record performance with 53 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 454 crore. The performance again reiterates the robustness of collection mechanism followed by the company while protecting customer interest."

Total income increased to Rs 1,670 crore during the quarter, up 20 per cent from Rs 1,386 crore a year ago, it said in a statement.
However, there was a significant rise in non-performing assets (NPAs) with gross NPAs rising to 4.56 per cent of gross advances as of September 2017 from 2.19 per cent in September 2016. Net NPAs too rose to 3.99 per cent from 1.82 per cent.
In absolute terms, gross NPAs increased to Rs 1,259.3 crore as on September 30, up from Rs 601.6 crore a year ago.

Net NPAs were Rs 1,102.1 crore against Rs 499.7 crore.

The company made reserves of Rs 157.1 crore as provision for NPAs or bad loans, up from Rs 101.9 crore a year ago.
"The rise in NPA accounts in Muthoot Finance is mainly on account of more time given to customers for repayment on our shorter tenor loans of 6 months which became NPA faster than our conventional loan tenor of 12 months.
"The company has also increased standard asset provision to 1.25 per cent higher than the regulatory requirement of 0.35 per cent," said George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director of the company.
Its loan assets under management were Rs 27,608 crore as at end-September 2017.

He said the subsidiaries of the company have again shown an excellent performance.
Its fully owned subsidiary Muthoot Home Finance reported a net profit rose to Rs 5 crore in second quarter from Rs 25 lakh a year ago.
NBFC firm Belstar Investment and Finance Pvt Ltd in which it holds 64.60 per cent stake reported profit after tax of Rs 7 crore, up from Rs 2 crore; while Muthoot Insurance Brokers generated a new premium of Rs 22 crore during July-September of this fiscal against Rs 19 crore.
However, Sri Lanka based foreign subsidiary Asia Asset Finance, in which it has 60 per cent stake witnessed a decline in net profit at Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) 4 crore from LKR 6 crore.

Muthoot Finance provides personal and business loans secured by gold jewellery or gold loans, primarily to individuals who pledge gold ornaments due to non-access to formal credit. It also gives credit to people with no access to credit at all.
Stock of the company closed 0.81 per cent up at Rs 473.10 apiece on BSE today.