Lower Tax Expense Helps L&T Finance Holdings Beat Q2 Profit Estimate

L&T Finance Holdings reported better-than-expected profit for quarter-ended September on lower tax expense.

Net income rose 45 percent year-on-year to Rs 360 crore, the infrastructure finance company said on Thursday. This compared to Rs 312 crore estimated by analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Income from operations rose 14.2 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 2,384 crore.

Total bad loans rose nearly 8 percent to Rs 3,986 crore in absolute terms compared to previous quarter. Net non-performing assets, as a percentage of total loans, remained unchanged at 3.3 percent during the quarter.

Provisions for bad loans in the April-June period decreased by 47 basis points from the previous quarter to 43.4 percent.

The company’s rural finance, housing finance, and wholesale finance segments recorded a 23 percent increase in assets over the same period last year, driven by the strong growth in disbursements, according to its statement.

Shares of L&T Finance Holdings rose as much as 4.1 percent, the most in 45 days, to Rs 203.25 apiece after the result announcement. The stock has returned 127.5 percent so far this year, compared with 25.8 percent advance in the S&P BSE Sensex Index.