LIC Housing Finance Ltd reported a 25.50 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit at ₹596 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2018, on the back of a robust growth in net interest income.

The housing finance company, in which Life Insurance Corporation of India has 40.31 per cent stake, reported a net profit of ₹475 crore in the year-ago period.

Net interest income (the difference between interest earned and interest expended) in the reporting quarter was up 41 per cent year-on-year at ₹1,042 crore.

Net interest margin (NII/ interest earning assets) came down a tad to 2.33 per cent from 2.35 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Loan disbursements nudged up 4 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to ₹12,778 crore (₹12,293 crore. Within this, individual loan disbursement edged up 2 per cent yoy to ₹11,540 crore and project loan disbursement was up 27 per cent yoy at ₹1,238 crore.

The outstanding loan portfolio increased by 16 per cent yoy to ₹1,81,698 crore as at December-end 2018.

A break-up of the outstanding loan portfolio shows that the proportion of retail loans has come down from 82.6 per cent as at December-end 2017 to 77.22 per cent as at December-end 2018.

Retail loan against property/ other increased from 13.2 per cent to 16.53 per cent and developer loans were up from 4.2 per cent to 6.25 per cent.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) increased from 0.87 per cent of gross advances to 1.26 per cent. Net NPAs rose from 0.49 per cent of net advances to 0.85 per cent.

Vinay Sah, MD & CEO, said: “We have registered stable numbers across all areas of business in Q3FY19…in a challenging and turbulent environment. We look forward to maintaining this growth journey with a focus on healthy asset quality, cost improvement and better market presence across India.”

LICHFL’s shares closed at ₹434.15 apiece, down 4.24 per cent over the previous close on BSE.

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