Muthoot registers dip in Q3 net profit at Rs 154 cr

Kerala-headquartered Muthoot Finance Ltd today reported a dip in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014 at Rs 154 crore.
The net profit for the corresponding period in the previous fiscal was Rs 194 crore.
While the the net profit for the nine months ending December 31, 2014 was Rs 505 crore, the retail loan assests under management was Rs 22,088 crore. The total income for December 2014 quarter in FY15 was Rs 1,069 crore.
Muthoot Chairman, M G George Muthoot, said the non-banking financial company could reverse its degrowth trend in the portfolio which prevailed the past few quarters.

"The footfalls of our customers is increasing and it is a positive sign," he said, adding that customers who had "burnt their fingers" are coming back and the flow towards the banks have stopped.
He said company continues its growth momentum with a growth in gold loan portfolio of Rs 315 crore during the quarter. Its networth has crossed Rs 5,000 crore during the quarter.

Referring to the recent agreement with Yes Bank for acting as its business correpondent, he said initially focus will be on domestic remittances, especially the migrant population, which is quite big in India. Later on, they would move on to other banking activities like deposits, loans.

On the expectations from the Union budget, he said Muthoot had asked for a separate regulator for NBFCs, priority sector lending to get loans from banks and proposed reducing the minimum level of deposits from private players from Rs 25 lakh to Rs five lakh. The new government was looking at NBFCs "more sympathetically", he added.
He also said Muthoot had increased its equity shares holding in Asia Asset Finance PLC Colombo, a listed financial company in Sri Lanka, from 26 per cent to 51 per cent,making it a subsidiary. It intends to activate gold loans business in Sri lanka through this company, he said.

Considering the long pause in growth due to regulatory uncertainties, a continued growth in two adjacent quarters was certainly a positive sign, he said.
"We expect profitablity to improve further along with the increase in the loan portfolio. The cmpany's NCD public issues are receiving tremendous response from retail investors and muthoot would launch its next issue in February," he said.
Muthoot Finance also announced two new directors on its board-- Pamela Anna Mathew George, chairperson of OEN and Alexander George.