Bajaj Finance Ltd (BFL) on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,825 crore for the quarter ended March 2023 (Q4FY24), up 21 per cent from a year ago.
The non-banking finance company had posted a net profit of Rs 3,158 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
Its stock closed 0.46 per cent down at Rs 7,293.9 a share on the BSE.
The company’s net interest income (NII) for the reporting quarter rose by 28 per cent to Rs 8,013 crore in Q4FY24 from Rs 6,254 crore in Q4FY23, while the consolidated net profit for the FY24 grew by 26 per cent to Rs 14,451 crore from Rs 11,508 crore in FY23, the company said in a statement.
The board of directors has recommended a dividend on equity shares at the rate of Rs 36 per share of face value of Rs 2 each for the financial year ended March 31, 2024.
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The company’s assets under management (AUM) grew by 34 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 3.30 trillion at the end of March 2024 from Rs 2.47 trillion as of March 2023.
The company estimated an AUM growth of 26-28 per cent in FY25. This will be supported by newly launched secured businesses in FY24 such as LAP, new car financing, and tractor finance, according to the analyst presentation. FY25 is expected to be a year of normalisation to pre-Covid metrics, adjusted for certain regulatory changes pertaining to NPA classification since FY20.
Net Interest Margin (NIM) has been moderating throughout FY24 due to an increase in cost of funds (COF) and a gradual shift in AUM composition towards secured assets.
“We expect COF to peak by July-August’24 and AUM composition pivots towards secured assets to stabilise by September 2024. Accordingly, we expect a 30-40 bps moderation in NIM over the next two quarters from our current levels,” it said.
The number of new loans booked grew by four per cent to 7.87 million in Q4FY24 against 7.56 million in Q4FY23.
BFL said the new loans booked during the quarter were lower by approximately 0.80 million on account of the restrictions placed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the company, on sanction and disbursal of loans under 'eCOM' and 'lnsta EMI Card'. It has made required changes in response to the regulatory restriction imposed by the RBI and formally requested the regulator for a review and removal of these restrictions.
The non-banking lender’s total customer base expanded by 21 per cent Y-o-Y at 83.64 million as of March 31, 2023 compared to 69.14 million a year ago. Its loan losses and provisions went up substantially to Rs 1,310 crore in Q4FY24 against Rs 859 crore in Q4FY23. The company held a management and macro-economic overlay of Rs 300 crore as of March 31, 2024.
Its asset quality profile improved with gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) declining to 0.85 per cent in March 2024 from 0.94 per cent a year ago. Net non-performing assets (NPAs) rose marginally to 0.37 per cent from 0.34 per cent in March 2023. The firm's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 22.52 per cent with tier-I of 21.51 per cent as of March 31, 2024.