Bajaj Finance declines over 5% as Q2 business update disappoints Street

Shares of Bajaj Finance slipped 5.4 per cent to Rs 3,286 on the BSE in the morning deals on Wednesday after the non-bank finance company (NBFC) reported weak July-September quarter (Q2FY21) business figures. In the past one month, the stock has underperformed the market by falling 5 per cent, as compared to 3 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

The company’s assets under management (AUM) grew 13 per cent year on year (YoY) at approximately Rs 1.37 trillion as of Q2FY21 as compared to Rs 1.36 trillion as on Q2FY20. New loans declined sharply to 3.6 million from 6.5 million YoY and 5 million quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).

Business volumes in the quarter were at 50–60 per cent of YoY levels in terms of the number of loans disbursed and the number of new customers acquired. The company acquired 1.2 million new customers in the quarter (compared with 1.9 million YoY), taking the overall customer base to 44.1 million.

“Growth slowdown is sharper than expected despite unlock. Bajaj Finance seems to have lost market share. Collections focus, cautious disbursements may have impacted growth. Higher credit cost guidance may keep earnings muted,” ICICI Securities said in a note.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services, on the other hand, said the sharp decline in disbursement volumes has come as a bit of a disappointment (in the context of healthy trends witnessed by peers such as HDFC). Nevertheless, they believe it is a good strategy to curtail disbursements in this uncertain environment.

Hence, the brokerage firm has cut FY21 AUM growth estimate to 6 per cent from 12 per cent earlier. “Margins are likely to be stable as the drag due to excess liquidity is offset by lower cost of funds. Given the collection efficiency performance across various asset classes in the industry, we keep our credit cost estimate of ~4.5 per cent for FY21 largely unchanged,” it said.

Bajaj Finance’s decision to accelerate provisioning in Q2 further dented sentiment. “The Company will continue to accelerate its provisioning for Covid-19 in Q2FY21 as well to further strengthen its balance sheet… Consolidated liquidity surplus stood at approximately Rs 22,300 crore as of 30 September 2020,” it said in its statement.

At 9:45 am, the stock was trading 4 per cent lower at Rs 3,342 per share, as against 0.4 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.