Reliance Capital Ltd, the financial services firm of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group,
said profit in the fiscal second quarter dropped 55% because of a
one-time gain in the year-earlier period from a stake sale in an unit.
Net profit fell to Rs.181
crore in the three months ended 30 September. Excluding the one-time
gain on account of a stake sale in Reliance Capital Asset Management in
the year earlier, second-quarter profit tripled from Rs.60 crore, owing to a robust performance in its life insurance and general insurance businesses. Total income fell 24% to Rs.1,854 crore.
Analysts had expected the company to report a profit of Rs.133.7 crore and revenue of Rs.1,565.4 crore, according to a survey by Bloomberg.
Reliance Capital’s general insurance business reported a profit of Rs.16 crore in the second quarter compared with a loss of Rs.105 crore in the year-earlier period. Its commercial finance business saw profit rise 26.4% to Rs.91 crore and profit for the asset management business rose 67% to Rs.50 crore.
The non-banking financial company (NBFC) is one of the 26 contenders to secure a banking licence.
Shares of Reliance Capital fell 3.42% to Rs.344.25
on BSE on Tuesday, while the benchmark Sensex shed 1.02% to 20,281.91
points. The earnings were announced after the close of trading on
Tuesday.
The life insurance business has done well and the positive performance will continue, said Sam Ghosh,
chief executive officer of Reliance Capital. He, however, cautioned
that the general insurance business may not do well because of declining
automobile sales.
The life insurance business’s profit rose more than fourfold to Rs.136 crore, Ghosh said.
“The life insurance business has done well and boosted profitability,” said Kajal Gandhi, an analyst at ICICI Securities Ltd. “There is no surprise in the results but it’s a better quarter compared with the previous one.”
The total funds under management for the life insurance business stood at Rs.17,525 crore at the end of September, the company said.
Given the sluggish economic growth, the company is
targeting smaller ticket deals in the retail sector, Ghosh said. This
has resulted in an improvement in the business’s net interest margin,
which widened to 5.3% in the quarter from 4.1% a year earlier.
Profit for Reliance Capital Asset Management rose 16% to Rs.67 crore.
Reliance Capital’s debt-to-equity ratio as on 30
September was 1.8 times. The company is trying to reduce its debt by
selling some assets, Ghosh said.
The company added 8,000 agents in the second quarter for
its life insurance business while the general insurance unit added 3,000
agents.
The motor third-party insurance pool and the group health insurance businesses have a very high claim ratio, Ghosh said.
In its mutual fund business, the company’s assets under management rose 8% to Rs.93,249 crore from a year earlier.
The company has not made any investments in the current quarter in order to maintain its capital adequacy ratio, Ghosh said.
According to S.P. Tulsian, an independent stock analyst
based in Mumbai, the company has failed to show any improvement similar
to other NBFCs. “They have somehow lost focus, as they have ventured
into too many areas,” he said.
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