PNB Housing Finance to go aggressive on affordable housing: MD & CEO Kousgi

“Very shortly, we are expecting a portfolio of more than our previous target of Rs 1000 crore,” said Kousgi.

Punjab National Bank Housing Finance, the housing finance arm of Punjab National Bank (PNB), plans to go aggressive on lending to affordable housing, MD and CEO Girish Kousgi told Moneycontrol.

In an exclusive interaction with us after the July-September FY24 quarter results, Kousgi said the company is aiming for overall growth of 17-18 percent and disbursal growth of around 20-25 percent in FY24.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

What is your assessment of the Q2 earnings?

Overall, our July-September FY24 earnings went well. Disbursements worked very well for us and retail disbursements were at 18 percent.

Additionally, our sanctions increased by over 30 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis and our gross non-performing assets (NPA) also stood at 1.78 percent from 6.06 percent on September 30, 2022. Net NPA stood at 1.19 percent.

Also read: LIC Housing Finance open to partner with SFBs to step up home loan business, says MD and CEO

How are you looking at growing your affordable housing segment?

We started lending to affordable housing eight months back and we already have a portfolio of around Rs 750 crore. Very shortly, we are expecting a portfolio of more than our previous target of Rs 1,000 crore. Also, we have a total of 89 branches dedicated to affordable housing and we plan to take the number to 100 branches soon.

Are you looking at partnering with banks to expand your affordable housing segment?

Currently, we are not looking at partnering with any banks.

How are you looking at growing geographically?

We would like to grow on equal terms in a geographical perspective. Going ahead, we would like to have our disbursements one-third (each) in the West, North and South of the country.

In the past few months, we saw our growth in the South jump from 29 percent to 37 percent. Simultaneously, our growth in the West went down to 25 percent from 30 percent.

As a result, our focus will be to grow in the West and further to other regions.

How are you looking at competition from HFCs and other banks?

During the pandemic, we saw aggressive growth in home loans from banks. But now, we see competition to be in line with the industry growth.

On the digital front, how are you looking to grow?

Our digital onboarding platform ACE enables secure and efficient onboarding of new retail customers, with around 50 percent of our digital sourcing being done through the same.

We also leverage digital and analytical tools to automate our credit collection system and 99.6 percent of our EMI collections are done through digital modes.

Also read: PNB Housing Finance posts 46% surge in Q2 profit on strong loan demand

Lastly, what is your outlook for FY24?

The company is aiming for overall growth of 17-18 percent and disbursements growth of around 20-25 percent in FY24.