Bajaj Finance Q3 profit soars 22% to ₹3,639 crore led by robust loan growth

Bajaj Finance Ltd., among the country's top non-bank lenders, on Monday (January 29) reported a consolidated net profit of ₹3,638.95 crore for the December quarter led by healthy loan growth. The net profit was up by about 22% over previous year's profit of ₹2,973 crore.

The non-bank finance major's net interest income (NII), or the difference between the interest earned and the interest paid, grew 25% on a year-on-year basis to ₹9,293 crore for the quarter.

The CNBC-TV18 poll had estimated a net profit of ₹3,591 crore, while it predicted NII at ₹7,610 crore.

Gross non-performing assets (NPA) and net NPA as of 31 December 2023 stood at 0.95% and 0.37% respectively, as against 1.14% and 0.41% as of 31 December 2022. The company has provisioning coverage ratio of 62% on stage 3 assets as of 31 December 2023.

The company's operating expenses to net total income for the third quarter was 33.9% as against 34.8% in the same quarter last year.

Pre-provisioning operating profit increased by 27% in Q3 to ₹6,142 crore from ₹4,853 crore in the year-ago quarter of last year.

Loan losses and provisions in the quarter under review was ₹1,248 crore as against ₹841 crore in Q3FY23. The company holds a management and macro-economic overlay of ₹590 crore as of 31 December, 2023.

According to its December quarter business update, the company recorded a 35% growth in its Assets Under Management to ₹3.11 lakh crore. This is the first time that the company's AUM has crossed the mark of ₹3 lakh crore.

Bajaj Finance booked 98.6 lakh new loans, which is a growth of 26% during the quarter from the 78.4 lakh loans it booked during the December quarter last year.

Overall customer franchise as of December 31 stood at 8.41 crore, compared to 6.6 crore last year. Customer franchise during the quarter increased by 38.5 lakh.

The company's Deposit Book also rose by 35% year-on-year to ₹58,000 crore as of December-end, compared to ₹42,984 crore during the year-ago period.

Shares of Bajaj Finance closed with gains of 1.62% at ₹7,200. The stock was also among the top gainers on the Nifty 50 index.