PNB Housing Finance’s corporate loan book more than doubled in the year to Sept. 30, as the Indian lender prepares to rebuild corporate lending while limiting its share of the overall portfolio.
The book stood at ₹689 crore (₹6.89 billion), a 107% year-over-year increase, according to the company’s investor presentation. Mint reported that Managing Director and CEO Ajai Kumar Shukla aims to grow the corporate book to ₹3,000 crore (₹30 billion) by FY27-end, from about ₹700 crore.
On the Oct. 28 earnings call, Shukla said, “this year we are aiming to get INR 3,000 crore of book this year,” after discussing a roughly ₹700 crore construction-finance book.
Shukla maintained loan-book growth guidance of 18% to 20% on the call. The company’s results release put total loan assets at ₹95,079 crore (₹950.79 billion) as of Sept. 30, up 19% from a year earlier.
CRISIL Ratings upgraded PNB Housing’s long-term bank-facility and debt ratings to “Crisil AAA/Stable” from “Crisil AA+/Stable” on Oct. 6, while reaffirming its short-term “Crisil A1+” rating. CRISIL cited Punjab National Bank’s stated intent to provide need-based funding support, as well as PNB Housing’s capital and earnings profile and established position in housing finance. It also noted competition from banks.
The company says it will keep corporate lending below about 10% of its total loan portfolio. Affordable and emerging-markets loans made up 41% of its retail book; PNB Housing identifies those categories as higher-yielding and says they can support yields and net interest margins.
Management said on the call it was evaluating rate increases of 10 to 15 basis points for retail loans and 15 to 20 basis points for corporate loans. If implemented, the changes would raise rates for borrowers. Shukla said any borrowing-cost benefit from the rating upgrade could come gradually, in phases.
