The US remains the key market for the company, while Europe has also shown growth, he said, adding that he did not see US slowdown as a cause for concern over. “In terms of business environment, the US economy in general and the financial services sector worldwide in particular are facing challenges. However, we have not seen any impact on our business so far. We continue to see good demand for our services and believe that the Global Delivery Model is enduring,” Premji stated.

HDFC net up 48.5% in third quarter

MUMBAI: High interest rates and real estate prices have failed to have any impact on the bottomline of housing finance major HDFC. Riding on the real estate boom, HDFC posted net profit of Rs 527.93 crore during the third quarter ended December, up 83 per cent over Rs 355.49 crore in the same quarter last year. As the company made a profit of Rs 121 crore on selling 5 per cent stake in HDFC Standard Life Insurance to joint venture partner Standard Life of UK, the final net profit for Q3 works out to Rs 648.93 crore, a rise of 83 per cent over the previous year.

The income from operations during the quarter was up smartly at Rs 2154 crore against Rs 1,457 crore during the same period last year, the company said on Friday. The earning per share for the quarter stood at Rs 24.10.

The company more than sustained the growth rate. Loan approvals during the nine months ended December 31, aggregated to Rs 29,376 crore as compared to Rs 22,666 crore during the corresponding period in the previous year, up 30 per cent. Disbursements during this period amounted to Rs 22,285 crore as compared to Rs 17,465 crore during the corresponding period last year, a rise of 28 per cent. For the nine-month period, the company’s posted profit after tax of Rs 1,668.13 crore against Rs 1,020.33 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. The total loan portfolio as of December 31 was worth Rs 68,151 crore against Rs 54,633 crore the year before. The non-performing assets were marginal at 1.12 per cent of the total loan portfolio.

... contd.