L&T Finance Group net up 15% on retail & wholesale advances

Leading non-banking lender L&T Finance Holdings today reported a 15 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 237 crore for the March quarter, driven by retail and wholesale advances.
Income from operations grew 19.77 per cent to Rs 1,957.96 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, while total disbursements jumped 20 per cent to Rs 10,688 crore, Chairman and Managing Director Y M Deosthale told reporters.
While retail credit grew 16 per cent to Rs 7,284 crore, wholesale advances rose 29 per cent to Rs 3,404 crore.
For the full year (2015-16), consolidated net expanded 16 per cent to Rs 857 crore from Rs 736 crore, while total advances grew 22 per cent to Rs 57,831 crore from Rs 47,232 crore in the previous year. This is despite the company moderating its growth in farm equipment business due to challenging environment in this sector.

On a standalone basis, however, the net income plunged 91 per cent to Rs 16.17 crore for the quarter due to fall in income and increase in expenses, down from Rs 190.07 crore in the year-ago period.
Total expenses rose to Rs 10.12 crore from Rs 8.86 crore, while income declined to Rs 37.3 crore from Rs 198.3 crore in the same period a year ago.

Despite adverse market conditions, the company could improve its asset quality with net NPA coming down marginally to 2.05 per cent from 2.10 a year ago.
Total assets under management grew 15 per cent to Rs 25,945 crore from Rs 22,497 crore, while the share of equity assets soared 41 per cent of the total AUM at Rs 10,316 crore, representing a 20 per cent increase annually, Deosthale said.

"There is a stress in rural and retail space, especially in rural areas. On the whole it was a difficult year for the farm sector," Deosthale said, adding, however, they saw growth in the infrastructure space, especially on operational projects and renewable energy sector.
"Asset quality in the infra space has been reasonably good, except for a small account that went in for restructuring during the year," he said.
According to Deosthale, growth was led by healthy loans to key focus areas, including operational projects in renewable energy and roads, apart from housing, microfinance and two-wheeler loans.
Operational projects account for 61 per cent of the total loans outstanding in the wholesale business, while B2C products constitute 61 per cent of the total loans outstanding in the retail business, he added.

Going forward, Deosthale said "the company will further strengthen its position in operational infra projects in renewable and roads, structured corporate finance and retail products like funding tractors and two-wheelers as well as microfinance and housing.