India's LIC Housing Finance beats Q2 profit view on loan demand

BENGALURU, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Indias LIC Housing Finance (LICH.NS) reported a second-quarter profit on Wednesday that was slightly ahead of analysts estimates on the back of healthy demand for housing loans.

The company, a unit of Life Insurance Corp of India (LIFI.NS), said profit after tax more-than-tripled to 11.88 billion rupees ($142.72 million) during the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Analysts had expected the company to report a profit of 11.66 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

Following a spate of interest rate hikes since May 2022, India has kept its key lending rate steady since February, which has led to home sales picking up, as was evident in DLFs (DLF.NS) and Macrotech Developers (MACE.NS) recent quarterly results.

LIC Housings net interest income jumped 83% to 21.07 billion rupees in the quarter.

Net interest margin, a key measure of profitability was 3.04%, compared with 1.78% a year earlier.

The companys total expenses rose 12%, including an increase of about 18% in finance costs.

\“Demand continues to remain robust as the overall economy is doing well along with stabilisation of interest rates,\” LIC Housing CEO Tribhuwan Adhikari said.

Rival PNB Housing Finance (PNBH.NS) reported a jump in second-quarter profit last week, helped by a healthy demand for home loans and improved asset quality.

LIC Housings shares closed 0.4% lower ahead of the results on Wednesday. The stock has gained about 10% so far this year, compared with a near 1% rise in Nifty Financial Services index (.NIFTYFIN).

($1 = 83.2380 Indian rupees)