Edelweiss Financial Q4 net profit falls 3.3 pct to Rs 232 crore; FY19 net up 15 pct

Edelweiss Financial Services Tuesday reported a decline of 3.3 per cent in its consolidated net profit to Rs 232 crore in the fourth quarter of the fiscal ended March 2019. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 240 crore during the corresponding January-March quarter of 2017-18. Its total revenue during the March quarter of 2018-19, however, went up by 14 per cent to Rs 2,942 crore as against Rs 2,586 crore in the same quarter of 2017-18, it said in a regulatory filing. For the full year 2018-19, the company's net profit grew 15 per cent to Rs 995 crore as against Rs 863 crore a year ago. Total revenue during the fiscal was up by 22 per cent to Rs 10,886 crore from Rs 8,920 crore in fiscal ended March 2018.

"We have remained resilient in the tough market conditions due to the sheer strength of our diversified business model which helped us post steady profits in FY19 despite a flat balance sheet. We continue to focus on strengthening the balance sheet through raising equity as well as long-term debt," Rashesh Shah, chairman and CEO, Edelweiss Financial Services, said. He said the company raised long-term borrowing of over Rs 7,800 crore in the past six months and have been more selective in growing the credit book.

"This gives our NBFC enough equity for the next 3-4 years to fund the next phase of growth," Shah said. As on March 30, 2019, the book size of retail credit was Rs 18,075 crore which equals corporate credit book of Rs 18,055 crore, Edelweiss said.
Total credit book, including distressed credit, stood at Rs 43,510 crore as of March 31, 2019.

The asset quality of the overall credit book continued to remain under control with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at 1.87 per cent and net NPAs at 0.83 per cent. The diversified financial conglomerate had a balance sheet of Rs 53,932 crore as of March 31, 2019. Shares of the company traded 3.94 per cent down at Rs 157.25 apiece on the BSE.