Total income increased 42.6% to Rs 483.57 crore in Q1 FY24 as against Rs 339.06 crore in Q1 FY23.

Net Interest Income (NII) for the period under review was Rs 463.7 crore, up 38.34% YoY. Net Interest Margin was 17.74% in Q1 FY24 as compared with 16.97% in Q1 FY23.

Loan losses & Provisions amounted to Rs 152 crore in Q1 FY24 as against loss if Rs 4 crore in Q1 FY23.

Overall Stage 2 assets stood at Rs 627 crore (8.72%) as of 30 June 2023 as against Rs 773 crore (14.59%) as of 30 June 2022 and Rs 632.5 crore (9.15%) as of 31 March 2023.

Gross & net stage-3 assets stood at Rs 107.2 crore (1.41%) as of 30 June 2023 as against Rs 59.1 crore (1.12%) as of 30 June 2022.

The Provision coverage on Stage-3 assets stood at 44.19% and the provision coverage on the overall portfolio stood at 1.64%.

The AUM jumped 43% to Rs 7,583.3 crore as on 30 June 2023 as against Rs 5,296.5 crore as of 30 June 2022.

During the quarter disbursements was at Rs 1,131.8 crore as against Rs 568.4 crore during Q1 FY23.

Active loans was at 0.32 Million as against 0.23 Million as of June 30, 2022. Collections efficiency for the quarter stood at 99.6%.

During Q1FY2024, the company has received sanctions for incremental debt of Rs 890 crore, availing disbursal of Rs 730 crore at a weighted average rate of interest of 9.18% (all-inclusive cost of 9.50% on fresh borrowings raised during this period). Liquidity buffer as of June 30, 2023 stood at about Rs 1,243.7 crore.

Capital adequacy remained high at 60.27% as on 30 June 2023.

Lakshmipathy Deenadayalan, chairman & managing director, Five-Star Business Finance, said, “Five Star continued to build on the strong business and disbursal momentum built in Q4FY2023. We added 13 branches during Q1FY2024 resulting in a strong branch network of 386 branches to deliver quality service to our customers. 7 out of these 13 branches were added in Rest of India locations (5 in MP, 1 in MH and 1 in Rajasthan which marks our entry into another new state). The remaining branches were added in locations across Southern States.

Even on the collections front, we saw stronger than typical Q1 numbers. We had a collection efficiency of 99.6% for the quarter and improvement across the various DPD buckets. While there was a marginal increase in NPA numbers as compared to the previous quarter (1.41% in Q1FY24 vs 1.36% in Q4FY23), which is a typical Q1 phenomenon. It is notable that our 30+ came down from 10.51% last quarter to 9.68% during the current quarter.

During the quarter, CARE has also upgraded the rating to AA-, which is also a testimony to the company's strength.”

Five-Star Business Finance is a non-banking finance company. It has a network of 386 branches catering to around 317,000 active live accounts in Tamil Nadu (including the Union Territory of Puducherry), Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The company primarily offers small loans for business purposes, asset creation and other economic purposes to micro-entrepreneurs and self employed individuals after due underwriting of their cashflows and backed by the collateral of their house property.

The scrip hit all time high at Rs 866.95 in intraday today.