Spandana Sphoorty posts net loss of Rs 220 crore for June quarter

Rural focussed micro-lender Spandana Sphoorty Financial on Thursday reported a net loss of Rs 220 crore for the quarter ended June 2022, mainly on account of a one-time write-off.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 55 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.

The total income during April-June 2022 declined to Rs 259 crore from Rs 435 crore in the same period of 2021-22 due to a fall in interest income, Spandana said in a regulatory filing.

The company's core interest income slipped to Rs 244 crore during the quarter against Rs 397 crore.

There was a pre-provision operating profit of Rs 51 crore in Q1 FY23. It was Rs 226 crore in Q1 FY22.

The micro lender suffered an impairment of Rs 352 crore on financial instruments and other provisions, which was higher than Rs 155 crore in the year-ago period.

Shalabh Saxena - Managing Director and CEO said: "Post a detailed analysis of the portfolio, we decided to write off Rs 702 crore, which was predominantly NPA of pre-March 21 book. We do not anticipate any material incremental write-off from this portfolio in the current fiscal year".

He said that the retained book is showing a strong collection efficiency of 106 per cent and the company expects a robust portfolio going forward.

The company disbursed loans worth Rs 1,320 crore in the June quarter of FY23, against Rs 216 crore a year ago.

"Our focus on customer acquisition continues. We acquired 1.06 lakh customers during the quarter. For the year, we have a target to take the base to 2.8 million customers, which will be an incremental nearly 4.5 lakh for the year," Saxena said.

Shares of Spandana closed at Rs 423.70 apiece on BSE, down by 3.02 per cent.