(Reuters) -India’s PNB Housing Finance posts a 23% rise in first-quarter profit on Monday, helped by steady home loan demand.
The company reported a consolidated net profit of 5.34 billion rupees ($61.9 million) for the quarter ended June 30, up from 4.33 billion rupees a year earlier.
India’s housing market has seen resilient demand in recent quarters. Demand for affordable homes has also picked up, analysts said, aided by the government’s push for low-cost housing.
The non-banking financial company has expanded to affordable housing in recent quarters as the segment commands higher interest rates due to lower competition from big banks.
Its total loan disbursements jumped 14% in the quarter, with those for affordable housing growing 30%.
The affordable housing segment’s loan asset grew 143% year-on-year to 57.44 billion rupees as of June-end, the company said.
Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 17% to 7.60 billion rupees.
Meanwhile, its asset quality improved, with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans falling to 1.06% at the end of June from 1.35% last year.
($1 = 86.2590 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Maju Samuel)
