BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Bajaj Finance posted a 22% increase in quarterly profit on Monday, helped by robust loan growth.
The non-banking financial company reported a consolidated net profit of 48.76 billion rupees ($554.8 million)for the quarter ended September 30, up from 40 billion rupees a year earlier.
Indian lenders saw a gradual pickup in credit demand during the July–September quarter after several quarters of slowdown, and analysts expect growth to stay firm in the second half of the fiscal year, supported by recent goods and services tax cuts.
Bajaj Finance’s assets under management rose 24% from a year earlier. Analysts noted that small and medium enterprise loans were a key driver of growth this quarter.
New loan bookings jumped 26% year-on-year, while net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 22% to 107.85 billion rupees.
Bajaj Finance said earlier that it disbursed a record 6.3 million loans between September 22 and October 26, up 29% in value from a year earlier, boosted by festive demand and tax relief measures, setting the stage for a strong second half of the year.
Shares of the company ended 1.7% higher ahead of the results.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)
