Piramal Enterprises loss widens to Rs 196 cr on dip in Shriram investment

Non-bank lender Piramal Enterprises on Friday reported a widening of loss to Rs 196 crore from the year-ago period's Rs 42 crore, driven by a dip in the value of its investments in Shriram Group.

The company's chief executive Jairam Sridharan told reporters that if one were to exclude the mark-to-market impact of Rs 375 crore over the Shriram investments, the company's core operations would have been growing.

The core net interest income came at Rs 1,128 crore, down 4 per cent from Rs 1,172 crore in the year-ago period.

Sridharan said even though the lender's assets under management stayed broadly flat at over Rs 63,000 crore, it was able to achieve significant improvement on the loanbook diversification front, and retail and wholesale books are placed at even keel.

This was made possible by a 49 per cent growth in retail assets, even as the wholesale book declined to Rs 29,000 crore from being at Rs 42,000 crore level in the year-ago period.

Going forward, the lender will keep increasing the proportion of the retail loans in the overall book to achieve the medium-term target of having two-thirds of the book from this side, Sridharan said.

The retail loans vertical rests on home finance, loans against property availed by small business owners, used car loans and unsecured personal loans, he said, adding that all four will witness growth.

It reported an improvement in the asset quality, with the gross non-performing assets ratio coming down to 3.8 per cent in the March quarter from the 4 per cent level in the quarter-ago period.

Sridharan said demand for housing loans, especially in the low-value segment, has been hit by the interest rate hikes but there is no impact on the repayments or asset quality.

The capital adequacy ratio stood at 31 per cent as on March 31, 2023.

The Piramal Enterprises scrip closed 2.87 per cent at Rs 735.55 apiece on BSE, as against a 1.13 per cent correction on the benchmark.