Ujjivan Financial logs net profit of Rs 44 cr in Q2

Ujjivan Financial Services Wednesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 44.3 crore in the second quarter ended September 30 of this fiscal.

The company had registered a net loss of Rs 12 crore in the corresponding July-September period of 2017-18.

Total income increased 23.6 per cent to Rs 467.40 crore in the reported quarter, it said in a release.

The company's gross loan book stood at Rs 8,317 crore at the end of September quarter, up 24.7 per cent from the year-ago period.

Disbursements grew 22 per cent year-on-year to Rs 8,167 crore, it said.

Ujjivan Financial Services, the holding company and promoter of its 100 per cent subsidiary Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, said it witnessed improved growth and building of the business momentum during the quarter.

"We expect the growth to pick up in second half(October-March) leading to 30-35 per cent AUM growth in 2018-19. We continue to improve our retail deposits business driven by expansion of our branch network and our continuous marketing efforts.

"The quarter also witnessed stressed liquidity in money market. However, Ujjivan was not impacted because of our conservative asset & liability structure of relatively short-term assets & longer-term liabilities inherited as a microfinance institution," said Samit Ghosh, MD & CEO, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

In order to strengthen the balance sheet, the company is planning to raise USD 50 million of Tier-II capital from IFC by this fiscal, which will serve dual purpose of providing long-term funding and improve capital adequacy, Ghosh said.

Ujjivan Financial Services MD & CEO Ittira Davis said: "Cost of funds has reduced from 8.6 per cent in June quarter 2018-19 to 8.5 per cent in the September quarter even though the interest rate is trending upwards as we replaced high cost legacy loans with customer deposits."