Bajaj Finance on Tuesday reported a 13% year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 4,014 crore for the September quarter, below the Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 5,726 crore. Net interest income increased 23% to Rs 8,838 crore.
Its total consolidated income increased to Rs 17,095 crore during the quarter under review, compared with Rs 13,382 crore in the same period a year earlier, BFL said in a regulatory filing.
As loan losses remained elevated, the profit growth and return on assets were muted, managing director Rajiv Jain said. Credit cost was the dampener for the quarter, he said.
The cost of funds increased by 3 basis points to 7.97% while the NIM stabilised at Q1 levels. Jain said he was cautiously optimistic about loan losses peaking and then going down in the second half of FY25. The portfolio quality was still holding and bounce rates were lower, he said.
The company reported a rise in gross and net NPAs across all lines of the business. GNPA stood at 1.06% and NNPA was at 0.46%, compared with 0.91% and 0.31%, respectively, in the year-ago period. The company tweaked and tightened underwriting norms for some customers and has been focusing on the collection efficiency, Jain said.
Bajaj Auto’s captive finance company Bajaj Auto Credit has started financing from Q4FY24, resulting in captive two-wheeler and three-wheeler loans getting shifted from Bajaj Finance to Bajaj Auto Credit and leading to a reduction in BFL’s captive Bajaj Auto portfolio, Jain said.
BFL’s assets under management grew 29% YoY to Rs 3.73 lakh crore. New loans booked were up 14% to 9.69 million. Total customer franchise grew 20% to 92.09 million. New lines of business were adding around 2-3% to the AUM growth.
