Mumbai, Jan 29 (PTI) Second largest pure-play mortgage player LIC Housing Finance on Friday reported a 22 per cent growth in net income at Rs 727.04 crore for the December quarter, despite dips in net interest margins and revenue.

While revenue from operations declined by a marginal 2 per cent to Rs 4,907 crore year-on-year, net interest margin slipped to 2.36 per cent from 2.44 per cent, Siddhartha Mohanty, its managing director and chief executive, said in a statement.

But the bottomline improved as net interest income inched up 2 per cent to Rs 1,281 crore on higher advances, which grew 6 per cent to Rs 2,20,197 crore boosted by a massive 28 per cent spike in disbursements from Rs 13,177 crore to Rs 16,857 crore.

The LIC arm made an expected credit loss provision of Rs 2,948.05 crore as against Rs 2,584.72 crore earlier.

The stage 3 exposure at default declined marginally to 2.68 per cent from 2.73 per cent and the pandemic-related provisions stood at Rs 212.01 crore, while provisions for impairment stood at Rs 186.53 crore, he said.

Of the fresh disbursements, individual loans jumped 36 per cent to Rs 14,511 crore from Rs 10,655 crore, whereas project loans declined to Rs 852 crore from Rs 931 crore, he said.

Outstanding individual loan book grew 5 per cent to Rs 2,04,444 crore from Rs 1,94,004 crore, while the outstanding project loan portfolio grew to Rs 15,753 crore from Rs 14,266 crore, taking the total outstanding to Rs 22,0197 crore, up 6 per cent from Rs 2,08,270 crore.

"Despite the pandemic-induced disruptions, we had quite strong quarter. We registered good growth in home loans in all segments including the affordable housing. We are strongly focused on controlling loan defaults, cost improvement and bettering market presence through digitization.

"The housing sector has seen a positive change over the past few months, mainly since the past quarter and the momentum continued in the December quarter too. We expect the same to continue in Q4 too and also expect to end the fiscal year on a positive note," Mohanty said. PIT BEN

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