Shriram Transport Q1 Net down 14 pc to Rs 313 crore

Non-bank lender Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC) today reported a 14 per cent decline in its June quarter net profit at Rs 312.90 crore due to a jump in provisioning for bad assets.
The company had posted post tax net of Rs 366.27 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Total income grew to Rs 2,015.87 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 from the year ago's Rs 1,891.27 crore.
Net interest income expanded to Rs 1,015.66 crore, from Rs 961.95 crore in the same period a year ago.
STFC Managing Director and Chief Executive Umesh Revankar said a surge in gross non-performing assets ratio to 3.74 per cent from the year ago's 3.09 per cent, coupled with a jump in the provisioning, hurt the bottomline.

Provisions shot up to Rs 287 crore during the quarter, up from the year ago period's Rs 239 crore, he said.

The NBFC's net interest margin narrowed to 6.54 per cent from 7.01 per cent in the year-ago period.
Revankar said measures like a hike in diesel prices and overall slowdown in the infrastructure sector had started to hurt the company's business from the third quarter of the last fiscal.
He, however, expressed optimism over prospects improving in coming months, saying there might be a revival in the infrastructure and mining sectors, which will help the company's business from the second half of 2014-15.

The company scrip today gained 0.81 per cent to close at Rs 885.50 a piece on the BSE, whose 30-share benchmark lost 0.55 per cent.