(Reuters) – India’s most valuable home loan financier Bajaj Housing Finance posted a 21% rise in its second-quarter profit on Monday as demand for credit remained robust.
The company, a unit of non-bank lender Bajaj Finance, reported its first quarterly earnings since its $782 million initial public offering in September that gathered strong investor interest.
Profit after tax rose to 5.46 billion rupees (nearly $65 million) for the three months ending Sept. 30 from 4.51 billion rupees a year earlier.
Demand for houses is rising in the world’s most-populous country, boosting demand for home loans.
Residential real estate prices are set to rise steadily over the next few years, driven by demand for premium properties, which form a dominant part of Bajaj Housing Finance’s business.
Its loan assets rose 27% year-on-year to 898.78 billion rupees during the September quarter. Total assets under management rose 26% to over 1 trillion rupees.
Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 13% to 7.13 billion rupees.
Asset quality worsened, with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans rising to 0.29% at the end of September, from 0.24% a year earlier.
Bajaj Housing Finance’s shares have fallen 17% since listing and settled about 2% lower ahead of the results.
Rivals PNB Housing Finance and LIC Housing Finance are expected to report second-quarter results on Oct. 24 and Oct. 28, respectively.
($1 = 84.0450 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Dimpal Gulwani; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
