HDFC Ltd (Housing Development Finance Corp), India’s top mortgage lender, on Thursday posted a 10% year-on-year rise in the net profit at Rs 981 crore for the quarter ended December 2011, driven by healthy growth in loan demand. The mortgage lender had reported a profit of R891crore same quarter last year.
“Notwithstanding the high interest rates that we are seeing in the system and the general perception or belief that there is a slowdown in the economy and NPLs (non-performing loans) in the banking system will go higher, we have not seen that,” said Keki Mistry vice-chairman and CEO, HDFC.
The company’s total income grew by 35% to Rs 4,473 crore during the quarter, up from Rs 3,321 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
At the time when banks are facing the rise in bad loans, HDFC has been able to maintain its asset quality. Gross non-performing loans at the end of December quarter stood at Rs 1,109 crore or 0.82% of the loan book as against 0.85% in the same period last year.
“Despite the challenging environment, this is the twenty-eighth consecutive quarter end at which the percentage of non-performing loans has been lower than the corresponding quarter in the previous year,” said Mistry.The loan book of the lender expanded more than 21% to Rs 132,000 crore as of December 31, 2011. Profit on sale of investments fell from Rs 167 crore during the quarter to Rs 88 crore, showing a drop of 47%. Interest and other charges shot up 51% Y-o-Y to Rs 3,012 crore. However, net interest margin remained unchanged at 4.3%.
“Despite the challenging environment, this is the twenty-eighth consecutive quarter end at which the percentage of non-performing loans has been lower than the corresponding quarter in the previous year,” said Mistry.The loan book of the lender expanded more than 21% to Rs 132,000 crore as of December 31, 2011. Profit on sale of investments fell from Rs 167 crore during the quarter to Rs 88 crore, showing a drop of 47%. Interest and other charges shot up 51% Y-o-Y to Rs 3,012 crore. However, net interest margin remained unchanged at 4.3%.