Indiabulls Housing Finance Q4 profit jumps two-folds to Rs 276 crore

Mortgage financier Indiabulls Housing Finance on Wednesday reported a two-fold jump in its profit after tax to Rs 276 crore in the quarter ended March 2021 helped by stable asset quality. The lender had reported a profit after tax of Rs 137 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY20.

"The quarter was very good. We have been focussing on asset quality, which is very robust. Overall, there has been above 100 per cent increase in our profit from Rs 137 crore in Q4 FY20 to Rs 276 crore this year (Q4 FY21),” the company's Vice Chairman, managing director and CEO Gagan Banga said.

The lender's net non-performing assets (NPAs) were stable at 1.59 per cent. Provisions to loan book stood at 3.7 per cent. He said collection efficiency of the company stood at 98.5 per cent in March. Cost to income ratio declined to 12.8 per cent in FY21 from 16.2 per cent for FY20 on the back of measures taken to improve cost efficiency, a company release said.

The lender said its funding costs have moderated with incremental funds being raised at sub 8 per cent per annum levels. This has helped bring down the cost of funds on books to 8.5 per cent. Its spread on the book has expanded to 2.7 per cent.

Overall, in FY21, it raised over Rs 34,000 crore through equity, bank lines, bonds and loan sell downs, the release said. Capital adequacy stood at 30.7 per cent and tier 1 at 24 per cent. Loan book declined to Rs 66,047 crore in the reporting quarter from Rs 73,065 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

“We have been saying that we will be de-growing our wholesale loans and increasing our retail disbursement. We have set a goal that by March 2022 we will decrease our wholesale book by 33 per cent,” Banga said.

The company has entered into a strategic co-lending partnership with HDFC Ltd to offer housing loans to homebuyers at competitive rates. It will originate retail home loans as per jointly drawn up credit policy and retain 20 per cent of the loan on its books and 80 per cent will be on HDFC's books.

"In FY22, with our co-lending partnerships in place, especially the one with HDFC Ltd, we are now set to grow the retail loan book and grow profitability through our technology-leveraged, retail focused asset-light business model,” Banga said. The company's shares closed at Rs 193.25 apiece, up 0.73 per cent on BSE.