Top Indian Mortgage Lender’s Profit Beats on Dividend Income

(Bloomberg) -- Housing Development Finance Corp. said profit in the third quarter rose 11%, helped by strong dividend income and lower provisions for bad loans.

Net income at the country's largest mortgage lender was 32.6 billion rupees ($430 million) in the three months to December, compared with 29.3 billion rupees a year ago, it said in a statement on Wednesday. 

That beat the average estimate of 30.99 billion rupees of nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Dividend income soared to 1.95 billion rupees from 20.2 million rupees a year ago. Shares in HDFC were trading 1.5% higher at 2:00 p.m. in Mumbai, outperforming the broader Sensex that was up 1%. 

The Mumbai-based financier set aside 3.9 billion rupees in provisions for bad loans during the quarter, down from 4.5 billion rupees three months earlier and 5.94 billion rupees a year ago. The firm's gross bad loan ratio widened to 2.32% at the end of December from 2% three months earlier. 

Home loan demand was robust with the lender recording its second highest monthly disbursements to individual borrowers in December. Demand for home loans and the pipeline of loan applications “continues to remain strong,” it said. 

Other key numbers:

• Assets under management grew 12% y/y to 6.2 trillion rupees at end of December
• Spreads at 2.26%, capital adequacy ratio at 22.4%
• Home loans to individuals rose 24%

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