L&T Finance Reports Strong Profit Growth On Asset Quality Improvement

L&T Finance Holdings Ltd.’s quarterly net profit surged as bad loans declined on account of higher provisioning.

Net profit rose 49 percent to Rs 309 crore on a year-on-year basis, the company said in an exchange filing on Wednesday. Revenue grew 13 percent to Rs 2,258.70 crore in the same period.

Total bad loans on L&T Finance’s books fell 18 percent from the previous quarter to Rs 3,698 crore. The company improved its provisioning during the quarter, which led to a "sharp reduction” in the net non-performing assets, the filing added. Net non-performing assets, as a percentage of total loans, fell 170 basis points to 3.3 percent during the quarter. Gross non-performing assets too declined to 5.7 percent of total assets from 7.1 percent in the same period.

Provisions for bad loans in the April-June increased 43.4 percent, an increase of 12 percentage points compared to the previous quarter.

The company’s rural finance, housing finance and wholesale finance segments recorded a 22 percent increase in assets over the same period last year.

Shares of L&T Finance gained as much as 6 percent after the results announcement, and closed 3.3 percent higher, while the benchmark BSE Sensex ended trade 0.5 percent higher.