Bajaj Finance Q2 profit up 88% to ₹2,781 cr

Finance major Bajaj Finance Ltd has reported 88% growth on a year-on-year basis in its net profit for the July-Sept quarter at ₹2,781 crore, its highest-ever consolidated quarterly profit, against ₹1,481 crore profit in the year-ago period.

The company's net interest income (NII) grew 31% to ₹7,001 crore as compared to ₹5,337 crore in the year-ago period. The total income surged 29% to ₹9,972 vs ₹7,735 during the same period last year.

The consolidated AUMs (assets under management) rose 31% to ₹2,18,366 crore in Q2 FY23 against ₹1,66,937 crore in Q2 FY22, the company says in an exchange filing today.

The Bajaj Finance stock closed 0.32% or 23.6 points up at ₹7,404 on the NSE today. The stock has surged 2% in the past week and 3.73% in the past six months.

The Pune-based financial company says it's on track to go fully digital across all products and services by March 2023. "An excellent first half for the company across balance sheet growth, portfolio quality and profitability. Strong momentum across all lines of businesses with secular AUM growth in the first half. Confident of strong FY 2023. Phase 1 of Web 2.0 has gone live."

In Q2 FY23, the company booked 67.6 lakh new loans as against 63.3 lakh new loans in Q2 FY22, a growth of 7%. Bajaj Finance's loan losses and provisions during the said quarter were ₹734 crore. Its gross NPA (non-performing assets) and net NPA stood at 1.17% and 0.44%, respectively, as of Q2 FY23 against 1.25% and 0.51% during the previous quarter. The company expects its loan losses at 1.35-1.45% of the average assets in FY23. It currently holds a management overlay of ₹1,000 crore as of 30 September 2022.

The company's overall B2B business disbursements grew by 15% during the said quarter at ₹13,862 crore vs ₹12,067 crore in the year-ago period. It says that 26.1 lakh new customers were added to the franchise during the quarter, and that it's on track to add between more than 1 crore new customers in FY23. In Q2 FY23, the company added 99 new locations and its geographic presence stood at 3,685 locations and over 1,43,300 distribution points as of 30 September 2022.

Bajaj Finance’s deposit book stood at ₹39,422 crore as of 30 September 2022, with the net deposit growth of ₹5,320 crore during Q2. Deposits contributed 22% of the consolidated borrowings as of 30 September 2022. “The company is on track to deliver its long-term goal of 25% of consolidated borrowings from deposits in the medium term.”

Bajaj Finance's total employee headcount as of September 30, 2022, stood at 39,423, including Bajaj Finance Ltd (BFL), BHFL (Bajaj Housing Finance Limited) and Bajaj Financial Securities. In Q2, its cost of funds was 6.91%, while the liquidity buffer stood at ₹9,288 crore. As per the company, given the strong ALM management, the impact of recent interest rate hikes on the cost of funds will remain gradual.