Upgrade IDFC to ‘outperform’ on stable margins, improving RoE
We also increase our FY14e and FY15e earnings by 4% on account of lower provisions. We believe IDFC is a good stock to play the reform story. Even if reforms were to take a backseat, IDFC can manage the risks and profitability well and additional cushion in the form of contingent provisions does exist.
The recent announcement of various reforms, though positive for sentiment, as such has not resulted in any new project proposals coming through. Loan growth of 36% seen in H1FY13 is unsustainable and will normalise around 20%.
IDFC is taking market share from mid-sized PSU banks. Many of the companies do not want the administrative hassle of having loan accounts with so many banks plus IDFC is also able to finance at a competitive rate. The management did admit that base rates have been sticky and if banks start dropping base rates, some of the refinancing business will disappear.
In our view, IDFC is managing funding profile very well. Despite having more refinance business and a larger share of operational projects in overall portfolio, 12 million spreads at 2.6% is close to the highest seen in the past seven years. This is mainly on account of its ability to tap effectively
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