The consolidated net profit of Bajaj Finance rose 21% to Rs 3,825 crore year-on-year (y-o-y) in the fourth quarter aided by a growth in assets under management (AUM). This is higher than the Rs 3,785 crore estimated by analysts at Bloomberg.
The non-bank lender’s AUM rose 34% y-o-y to Rs 3.3 trillion as on March 31. The number of new loans booked by the lender rose 4% y-o-y to nearly 7.9 million in the March quarter. The NBFC said new loans booked were lower by around 0.8 million in the March quarter on account of the restrictions placed by the RBI.
While the net interest income rose 28% y-o-y to Rs 8,013 crore, the net interest margin was compressed by 21 basis points (bps)due to the composition changes in its AUM. The company delivered an annualised return on assets of 4.84%, a tad lower than 5.40% a year ago.
On the other hand, the deposit book rose 35% y-o-y to Rs 60,151 crore as on March 31.
Loan losses and provisions were at Rs 1,310 crore. The gross non-performing asset ratio fell to 0.85% from 0.94% a year ago. The net non-performing asset ratio rose to 0.37% from 0.34% a year ago.
The company holds a management and macro-economic overlay of Rs 300 crore as of March 31 and utilised Rs 127 crore towards strengthening of its expected credit loss model and released Rs 163 crore towards loan losses and provisions. In Q4, it raised around Rs 6,016 crore under its ECB programme.
Going ahead, the NBFC expects its AUM to grow at 26-28% in FY25.
“We expect cost of funds to peak by July-August and AUM composition pivot towards secured assets to stabilise by September. Accordingly, we expect a 30-40 bps moderation in NIM over the next two quarters from our current levels,” the NBFC said in an investor presentation.
Review of restrictions
Meanwhile, the NBFC has requested the RBI to review the restrictions imposed last year on the two lending products — ‘eCOM’ and ‘Insta EMI Card’. “We have made required changes in response to the restrictions on sanction and disbursal of loans under ‘eCOM’ and ‘lnsta EMI Card’. The company has formally requested RBI for a review and removal of these restrictions,” Bajaj Finance said in a press release.
Separately, the company has implemented key fact statement for all lending products effective March 31 and made it available in 20 vernacular languages.