Mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance today said its September quarter net more than doubled to Rs 243 crore,largely because of lower base. The home-loan subsidiary of life insurance giant LIC had posted a lower-than-average post tax profit of Rs 98.39 crore in the year-ago period due to a one-time jump in provisioning. The company's core net interest income rose 6 per cent over the last year during the reporting quarter to Rs 354 crore,though the total income was up 23 per cent at Rs 1,862 crore. However,LICHF's net interest margin slipped to 2.10 per cent from 2.18 per cent in the preceding quarter. The company's Director and chief executive V K Sharma attributed the rise to the base effect and also company's ability to keep the non-performing assets under control. He pointed to the reduction in provisions to Rs 6.94 crore from the otherwise average of above Rs 40 crore on the back of a reduction in gross NPAs as a major factor that helped the bottomlines. The gross NPA ratio came down a tad to 0.60 per cent from the 0.64 per cent in the year ago period. Sharma attributed the fall in the net interest margin to the higher borrowing costs and lower component of high-margin developer loans at 3 per cent of the Rs 69,000 crore portfolio. He said the company is targeting to increase the developer loans to 8-10 per cent and is aiming at the NIM crossing the 2.5 per cent by end of the fiscal. The company's scrip closed 0.27 per cent up at Rs 242.95 apiece on the BSE,whose 30-share benchmark Sensex gained 0.40 per cent during trading today. LICHF's individual loan disbursements during the quarter were up 21 per cent at Rs 5,716 crore and Sharma said it is targeting for an overall loan growth of up to 25 per cent for the fiscal.
