Ujjivan Financial Services today reported a more than three-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 64.86 crore for the last quarter ended March 2018. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 19.35 crore in the January-March quarter of 2016-17.

Income during the March quarter rose to Rs 460.90 crore from Rs 340 crore in the same period a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. For the full year 2017-18, profit fell multi-fold to Rs 7.28 crore from Rs 207.67 crore in 2016-17 as provisions for bad loans and write-offs rose significantly.

For the January-March quarter, provisioning and write-offs were increased to Rs 34.71 crore as against Rs 7.17 crore in the same period a year earlier. For the entire 2017-18 fiscal, provisioning and write-offs stood at Rs 310.81 crore as against Rs 75.12 crore in the previous fiscal.

The total assets of Ujjivan grew to Rs 9,813.87 crore as on March 31, 2018 from Rs 8,478.59 crore by the end of March 2017.

The company, the promoter of its 100 per cent subsidiary Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, said its loan book in the March quarter grew by 18.5 per cent from a year ago at Rs 7,560 crore. Disbursement for the fourth quarter was at Rs 2,262 crore, an increase of 60.8 per cent over the year-ago period.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 3.6 per cent of gross advances at end-March 2018 and net NPAs at 0.7 per cent. There were prudential write-offs of Rs 177 crore in 2017-18 (covered by provisions) and the provision coverage ratio stood at 81.5 per cent, it said.

“Fiscal year 2017-18 has been a fruitful year for Ujjivan with the completion of our first year of banking operations, despite the significant challenges we faced due to demonetisation...We look forward to converting existing asset centres to full-fledged banking outlets and expect to have 475 banking outlets by March 2019,” said Samit Ghosh, MD & CEO, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

Sudha Suresh, MD & CEO, Ujjivan Financial Services said, “This quarter we have clocked the highest ever quarterly disbursement of Rs 2,262 crore and closed the year with an overall portfolio of Rs 7,560 crore. Cost of funds has significantly reduced from 10.4 per cent in 2016-17 to 9 per cent in 2017-18 as we repaid a significant portion of high cost legacy borrowing by raising deposits at competitive prices.”

Suresh said as on March 2018 the company has rolled out 187 full-service banking outlets spread across 20 states, including 47 banking outlets in URCs to expand its reach to the unserved and under-served in the rural areas. “We are expanding our product portfolio to suit the banking needs of retail customers, supported by an extensive marketing outreach for the bank,” she said.

The board of the company has recommended an equity dividend of 5 per cent or Rs 0.50 per equity share subject to the approval of the shareholders. Stock of Ujjivan Financial closed 1.21 per cent lower at Rs 405.50 on BSE today.

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