Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance has reported a 60 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs.63 crore in the first half-year ended September 30, 2012, against Rs.39 crore in the same period in the previous year. Home loan disbursements registered a rise of 44 per cent to Rs.1,244 crore from Rs.866 crore. The assets under management crossed the Rs.5,000-crore mark, and stood at Rs.5,070 crore as on September 30, 2012, against Rs.3,493 crore as on September 30, 2011.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Srinivas Acharya, Managing Director, said despite all negative trends in the industry, the company could report extremely good performance. “My expectation is that business during the second-half would be generally better than the first-half, and I have no doubt in reaching the target of Rs.2,500 crore disbursements for the full year.” Though there was a slowdown in the Chennai market and builders had unsold stock, Mr. Acharya said he did not see that much rattle. “We do see things slowing down in Chennai but that does not cause any alarm,” he said. He said there was huge potential for growth in the South Indian market. During the half-year up to September, the company opened 16 new offices to expand its branch network to 91. The aim was to expand its pan-India network to 100 branches by March 2013, Mr. Acharya said. There were 44 locations in the south still to be tapped, he said. Going beyond south, the company was looking to expand its presence in Maharashtra. “We are not targeting Mumbai or Pune. We look to expand in only in Tier-2 cities such as Aurangabad, Nashik, Sholapur and Ratnagiri as our experience in Tier-2 cities so far has been very good,” he said. The company was betting on the retail segment where the average loan size had risen to Rs.15 lakh per account from Rs.11 lakh two years ago, he said.