Ujjivan Small Finance Q4 net profit up 15 pc at Rs 73 cr

Ujjivan Small Finance Bank on Tuesday reported a 15 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 73.15 crore for the three months to March, after it made a COVID-19 related provision of Rs 70 crore.

The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 63.78 crore during the same quarter of 2018-19, it said.

"We had set aside Rs 70 crore for COVID-19 related provisioning, which impacted our profitability during the quarter," the bank's managing director and CEO Nitin Chugh said.

The bank extended the Reserve Bank's three month loan repayment moratorium to 100 per cent of its microfinance borrowers.

Nearly 70 per cent of its non-microfinance borrowers have opted for the moratorium, Chugh said.

For the full year, net profit rose to Rs 350 crore as against Rs 199 crore in FY19.

During the quarter, the lender's cost of funds reduced to 7.9 per cent from 8.4 per cent in the year-ago period and net interest margin (NIM) improved to 11.2 per cent from 10.8 per cent.

Net interest income grew by 46 per cent to Rs 466 crore in the quarter.

Gross NPA stood at 1 per cent during the quarter, while net NPA was at 0.2 per cent.

The lender wrote-off loans worth Rs 19.2 crore during the quarter.

Disbursement during the quarter declined to Rs 3,254 crore from Rs 3,728 crore during the same quarter of last fiscal.

Due to the lockdown, the bank hasn't been able to lend any significant amount during the first two months of FY21, Chugh said, adding disbursement is likely to pick up going forward.

The bank expects the mass market to show resilience and recover strongly and the economic package announced by government would also boost recovery and open various opportunities, he added.

The bank's scrip on Tuesday closed 1.53 per cent higher at Rs 26.55 on the BSE.