Piramal Enterprises Q1 net profit dips 64 percent to Rs 181 cr

Piramal Enterprises on Tuesday reported a 64 percent decline in its June quarter net profit to Rs 181 crore, impacted because of a higher base due to a one-off item last year. The city-headquartered non-bank lender had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 509 crore in the year-ago period.

Its managing director and chief executive Jairam Sridharan said the year-ago performance included a Rs 850 crore benefit from a stake sale in a Shriram Group entity, and added that the performance has been stable in the reporting quarter this year.

The core net interest income grew 18 percent to Rs 807 crore on the back of a 10 percent increase in the overall assets under management to Rs 70,576 crore, while the net interest margin narrowed to 6.7 percent from 7.3 percent in the year-ago period.

Sridharan said disbursements were impacted in the June quarter due to regulatory changes around fair practices but exuded confidence that the company will be able to meet its FY25 target of 15 percent AUM growth. He said the growth in retail AUM was 43 percent, and added that the company will slow down on the growth from here on.

The other income declined 21 percent to Rs 167 crore during the April-June period when compared to the last year. Under impairment allowances, it had a reversal of Rs 399 crore during the quarter on a standalone basis, which Sridharan explained as being equally split due to recoveries from legacy assets and also write-offs from the same pool of loans.

Amid regulatory concerns on this, Sridharan said 10 percent of its overall mortgage book, or around Rs 3,400 crore of loans are top-ups on existing lines and added that it is difficult to track the end uses of such loans, especially for NBFCs. The RBI guidelines on harmonization released on Monday will have a marginal impact on the capital position, Sridharan said.

The overall capital adequacy ratio stood at 24.4 percent. The Piramal scrip closed 0.28 percent down at Rs 985.70 apiece on the BSE on Tuesday against a 0.87 percent correction on the benchmark.