Home First Finance continued its strong business momentum. HomeFirst Finance's PAT increases by 32.9% y-o-y. The FY23 disbursements crossed Rs 30bn (+48% y-o-y). AUM crossed Rs 70bn (growth of 34% y-o-y). Asset Quality sees sharp improvement of 70bps on y-o-y basis. The company reached the milestone of serving 1,00,000 customers since inception.
ManojViswanathan, MD & CEO said, “FY23 year was a year of several notable milestones for the Company. We can now take pride in having served 1,00,000 customers since inception with total housing loans disbursed in excess of 10,000 Cr. Our physical branch office distribution crossed 100 branches (111 branches as of 31 Mar, 2023) and disbursed more than Rs 3,000 Crs in this financial year which is the highest ever since the commencement of business.”
This year also saw the entry of International Finance Corporation (a member of World Bank Group) as a lending partner to the Company with the issue of NCDs aggregating to Rs 280 Cr. The company also received a low risk ESG rating. The company continues to expand its distribution in large affordable housing markets in States where its already present, going deeper in a contiguous manner.
The company does business across 265 touchpoints (increase of 65 from Mar’22 levels) across Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets in 13 states/ UT. HomeFirst’s disbursals momentum increased from Rs 2,031 in FY22 to Rs 3,013 Crs in FY23, another high for HomeFirst, leading to AUM growth of 33.8% from Rs 5,380 Crs to Rs 7198 Crs.
The company’s focus is on early bucket collections has further progressed in FY23. 1+ DPD improved from 5.3% to 4.0% on y-o-y basis. 30+ DPD improved from 3.7% to 2.7% on y-o-y basis. Gross Stage 3 (GNPA) as per RBI circular dated 12 Nov 2021, improved from 2.3% to 1.6% on y-o-y basis. Prior to such classification, it stands at 0.9% (Mar’22: 1.3%).
Digital adoption has further improved. 93% of our customers are registered on our app as on Mar’23 compared to 91% in Dec’22 & 80% in Mar’22. Unique User Logins improved from 54% in Q4FY22 to 57% in Q4FY23. Service requests raised on app have improved from 83% to 91% on a y-o-y basis. During FY23, Profit After Tax increased by 31% from Rs 174 Crs to Rs 228 Crs. ROE improved sharply by 170 bps to 13.5% in FY23 over FY22’s 11.8%. Q4FY23 witnessed ROE of 14.4% vs 12.5% for Q4FY22.
Improvement in ROE was backed by strong NIMs (6.4% vs 5.4% y-o-y), optimal use of cash and judicious operating costs. We believe ROE’s can improve further as we scale and operating leverage benefits continue to flow through.
Viswanathan concluded, “Overall, FY23 was a very good year and look forward to an even better FY24 given the tailwinds of the housing sector supported by overall economic growth momentum and strong execution mindset of the company. We will continue to deliver excellent results while staying true to our mission of being the ‘Fastest Provider of Home Finance for the Aspiring Middle Class, delivered with Ease and Transparency.’
