Eyeing geographical expansions; plan to add 5-8 branches in FY18: GIC Housing Fin

Growth for GIC Housing Finance remained strong in Q4 as reduction in employee expenses lead to higher earnings growth.

S Gopakumar, MD & CEO, GIC Housing Finance is optimistic of geographical expansions and aim to add more branches in FY18. He said their plan to increase networks continue, adding that last year in FY17 they added 5 branches. This fiscal they intend to add 5-8 branches.

He is also very confident of seeing growth in assets under management (AUM) on back of government’s focus on affordable housing.

For FY17 the AUM growth was at Rs 9269 crore compared the earlier fiscal of Rs 7906 crore.

Throwing more light on the fourth quarter numbers, he said the net interest margins for the quarter stood at 2.86 percent as against 2.67 for the same quarter earlier fiscal and the spread was 1.39 percent versus 1.34 percent in the previous year. However, going forward the margins may come down a bit because of reduction in lending rates.

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S Gopakumar

MD & CEO|GIC Housing Finance

Gopakumar said even if margins may fall a bit, both the profit after tax (PAT) and profit before tax (PBT) will be much higher in FY18 than FY17.

He said the company witnessed some stress on the loan against property (LAP) portfolio, so they chose to grow less in that segment compared to housing loans.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) for FY17 stood at 2.33 percent, he said, adding that they aim to bring it down further going forward.

GIC Housing Finance has reported a 24.4 percent increase in net profit at Rs 46.61 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 35.87 crore for the same period of 2015-16.

The company's main business is to provide loans for purchase or construction of the residential units.