Star Housing Finance Limited (Star HFL), a BSE listed (BSE Scrip code BOM: 539017) a professionally run rural focused retail home finance company has continued its growth momentum reflecting in the Business and financial numbers for the half year ending September 30, 2023.
The Company has achieved milestones across asset and liability side of the business during the period and has continued expanding its footprints across existing and new geographies. Courtesy this performance, the financial numbers have been robust for the period. Key Performance Highlights for the period ending/as of Sep 30, 2023.
Business Numbers: AUM increased 110% y-o-y to Rs. 319.43 crs. The Company disbursed Rs. 108.30 crs registering y-o-y growth of 49%. Star HFL has now provided housing finance assistance cumulatively to more than 4000 Indian families in EWS/LIG segment towards purchase/construction of own home. Asset Quality Remains Intact: PAR (0+ days past due) stood at 4.52%, of which GNPA stands at 1.46% and NNPA as of Sep 30, 2023 stands at 1.08%.
Income Growth: Interest income grew by 92.88% y-o-y and total income grew 75.53% y-o-y for the half year. Profitability: PBT and PAT registered 26.25% and 50.16% y-o-y growth respectively.
Star HFL expanded to North with a presence in Ghaziabad in NCR and is now present across its operational geographies with 20 physical offices and 25 digital PoPs. Star HFL has 200+ housing financial professionals across geographies and business functions. Traction in Liability: The Company received highest ever single sanction of Rs 50 crs from the State Bank of India. During the period, Star HFL has got incremental sanction of Rs 158.42 crs credit lines from 11 banks and financial institutions of which Rs 88.42 crs has been drawn-down. The pipeline remains robust to cater to the growth aspirations for the second half of FY'2023-24.
Deployment of core lending suite for end-to-end processing of home loan applications is in progress. Employee Ownership: Continuing with the philosophy of employee ownership, Star HFL board during the period has approved the ESOP II scheme for eligible employees.
Rating partners have acknowledged the quality growth exhibited by the Company and resulting in credit rating upgrade by CARE for bank loan facilities to CARE BBB/Stable. Speaking on the H1 performance Kalpesh Dave CEO of Star HFL said, "We are happy to register strong growth in H1 and to have carried forward the growth momentum in the second half of the financial year. While growth is important, our focus remains firmly on maintaining the quality of the book.
New business centers opened during the period will further strengthen the branch network and diversify the loan book in existing and new geographies. Traction in liability gives us confidence to plan and execute asset growth for the year. We shall continue to invest in creating capacity through expansion, on boarding of quality manpower and digitization of our processes. Our endeavor in second half of the year would be to improve productivity levels across business operations which in turn will enable optimizing the bottom line and return ratios".
