India's LIC Housing Finance beats Q2 profit view on loan demand

Lodha Developers

01/11/2023 15:36

BENGALURU, Nov 1 (Reuters) - India's LIC Housing Finance
 LICH.NS  reported a second-quarter profit on Wednesday that was
slightly ahead of analysts' estimates on the back of healthy
demand for housing loans.
    The company, a unit of Life Insurance Corp of India
 LIFI.NS , said profit after tax more-than-tripled to 11.88
billion rupees ($142.72 million) during the quarter ended Sept.
30.
    Analysts had expected the company to report a profit of
11.66 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.
    Following a spate of interest rate hikes since May 2022,
India has kept its key lending rate steady since February, which
has led to home sales picking up, as was evident in DLF's
 DLF.NS  and Macrotech Developers'  MACE.NS  recent quarterly
results.
    LIC Housing's net interest income jumped 83% to 21.07
billion rupees in the quarter.
    Net interest margin, a key measure of profitability was
3.04%, compared with 1.78% a year earlier.
    The company's total expenses rose 12%, including an increase
of about 18% in finance costs.
    "Demand continues to remain robust as the overall economy is
doing well along with stabilisation of interest rates," LIC
Housing CEO Tribhuwan Adhikari said.
    Rival PNB Housing Finance  PNBH.NS  reported a jump in
second-quarter profit last week, helped by a healthy demand for
home loans and improved asset quality.
    LIC Housing's shares closed 0.4% lower ahead of the results
on Wednesday. The stock has gained about 10% so far this year,
compared with a near 1% rise in Nifty Financial Services index
 .NIFTYFIN .

 ($1 = 83.2380 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Dimpal Gulwani in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak
Dasgupta)
 ((Dimpal.Gulwani@thomsonreuters.com))