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L&T Finance Holdings Ltd said on Friday its loans and advances were expected to grow at 15-17 per cent for FY14.
The banking aspirant clocked a year-on-year growth of 21.1 per cent at Rs 37,820 crore by the end of December 2013.
N Sivaraman, whole-time director and president, said there had been a general slowdown in the economy that had been characterised by the absence of new capital expenditure and stretched working capital cycles of corporates and had resulted in a subdued investment climate.
Consequently, the company continued to follow a cautious approach to credit selection and hence, disbursements in the B2B segment (corporate, construction equipment and commercial vehicle segments) had been muted, he said.
Referring to the trend in interest margins, Sivaraman said the company expected the margins to improve by 10-15 basis points. The company had posted 5.32 per cent in the third quarter ended December 2013, up from 5.28 per cent in Q3 of 2012-13.
It posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 109.68 crore for the third quarter (December 2013) down from Rs 294.62 crore in the same quarter of 2012-13. The total income was Rs 1,315.23 crore as against Rs 993.05 crore in Q3 in FY13.
The continuing stress in the economy had resulted in slippages in asset quality, mainly in the construction equipment, commercial vehicle and corporate segments.
Gross Non-Performing Assets stood at 2.93 per cent of loan assets (December 2013) as compared to 2.89 per cent as on September 30, 2013.
