Bajaj Finance posts highest-ever quarterly profit of Rs 1,614 crore

Bajaj Finance Ltd, one of the largest players in consumer finance segment, on Wednesday reported 52 per cent jump in its consolidated profit after tax of Rs 1,614 crore in the quarter ended December 2019 (Q3 FY20).

It had reported a profit of Rs 1,060 crore during Q3 FY19. The consolidated assets under management went up by 35 per cent to Rs 1.45 lakh crore from Rs 1.07 lakh crore in the same period.

New loans booked during Q3 FY20 increased by 13 per cent to 76.7 lakh from 67.7 lakh in Q3 FY19 while customer franchise increased by 24 per cent to 4.03 crore as of December 31, 2019 from 3.25 crore as on the same day of previous year.

Net interest income was up by 42 per cent to Rs 4,537 crore from Rs 3,206 crore while total operating expenses to net interest income was 33.9 per cent against 34.9 per cent.

Loan losses and provisions (expected credit loss) for Q3 FY20 totalled Rs 831 crore as against Rs 451 crore in Q3 FY19. During the quarter, the company had made an accelerated provision of Rs 85 crore in its loan against securities portfolio.

Adjusted for this, loan losses and provisions (expected credit loss) for Q3 FY20 were Rs 746 crore.

From the current financial year, Bajaj Finance and its subsidiary Bajaj Housing Finance Ltd has opted for reduced rate of 25.17 per cent for computation of income tax as per recently inserted Section 115BAA of the Income Tax Act 1961.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) and net NPAs recognised as per extant Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prudential norms and provisioned as per expected credit loss (ECL) method prescribed in Ind AS as of December 31, 2019 stood at 1.61 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.

The provisioning coverage ratio was 57 per cent. Standard assets provisioning (ECL stage 1 and 2) was 101 basis points under Ind AS versus about 40 basis points as per RBI and National Housing Bank prudential norms.

Bajaj Finance results include those of its wholly-owned subsidiaries Bajaj Housing Finance Ltd and Bajaj Financial Securities Ltd.

Bajaj Finance, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, is one of the largest players in burgeoning consumer finance segment and a pioneer in introducing interest-free EMI finance options in more than 50 categories, ranging from consumer durables to lifestyle products to groceries.

Apart from consumer finance, the company also has substantial business penetration in small and medium enterprises, commercial and rural lending.

( With inputs from ANI )