Piramal Ent Q3 net profit up 21%, to raise Rs 2,000 crore

Ajay Piramal-controlled Piramal Enterprises today said that the company has seen a robust performance in financial services and pharmaceutical verticals in the quarter ended December 31 and plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore in the near future.
Piramal Enterprises reported a 21.37 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 490.47 crore for the December quarter. Consolidated revenue from operations also rose to Rs 2,858.36 crore for the quarter under review, against Rs 2,341.74 crore in the same period a year ago.
"We have continued to deliver a strong performance since past many quarters. Out of our Rs 7,000 crore capital raising plans, we have successfully raised Rs 5,000 crore through QIP in the last quarter and are raising another Rs 2,000 crore shortly. We will deploy Rs 5,000 crore in financial services, Rs 1,000 crore in the pharma sector and remaining Rs 1,000 crore will used for general purposes," Piramal Enterprises chairman Ajay Piramal told PTI here.

The consistency in our performance is an outcome of the robustness of our business model and sharp focus on quality, compliance, legal and risk mitigation across our businesses, Piramal added.
The company's income from financial services jumped 46 per cent at Rs 1,316 crore for the quarter under review. The growth in income was primarily driven by increase in size of loan book, which grew by 68 per cent over last year to Rs 38,036 crore.
Construction finance now accounts for 58 per cent of its real estate loan book. Its corporate finance group (CFG) loan book grew by 134 per cent to Rs 6,392 crore and emerging corporate lending loan book nearly doubled to Rs 619 crore as on December 31.

The company received housing finance licence in August and disbursed Rs 491 crore in Q3 FY18. Housing loans approved but not disbursed stands at Rs 680 crore as on December 2017.

During Q3 FY18, the company's pharma segment revenues grew by 7 per cent to Rs 1,022 crore, as compared with Rs 954 crore in same period last year. Revenue from India consumer products for the quarter grew by 17 per cent to Rs 100 crore.
"The domestic pharma sector only grew by over 5 per cent last year due to a slowdown and GST impact, but it will grow faster this year as the industry has started picking up", Piramal said.

The company has also forayed into hospitality sector and committed Rs 1,200 crore of loans across marquee Hotel Assets in Gurugram, Bangalore and Pune.