Bajaj Finserv Q1 results: PAT falls 31% YoY to Rs 833 crore hit by Covid 2.0

MUMBAI: today reported a 31 per cent year-on-year decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 833 crore for the quarter ended June as operations took a hit due to the second wave of Covid-19 infections.

The company’s consolidated total income in the quarter fell by 1.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs 13,949 crore. “Under these challenging times, our businesses focused on managing risk with a calibrated approach to growth,” the company said in an exchange filing.

The company’s bottomline in the quarter was also adversely affected by a sharp drop in unrealized mark-to-market gains on investment during the quarter. The unrealized mark-to-market gains on investment plummeted to Rs 25 crore in the June quarter from Rs 330 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The life insurance business of the company had a solid quarter despite the challenges posed by localized lockdowns. New business premium in the quarter grew 75 per cent on-year to Rs 1,296 crore, while renewal premium jumped 27 per cent.

However, the surge in claims related to Covid-19 deaths saw net profit of the business sink to Rs 84 crore from Rs 130 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The general insurance business had a tepid quarter as net earned premium remained largely flat at Rs 1,815 crore as against Rs 1,818 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The claims ratio for the business jumped to 75.9 per cent in the quarter from 68.1 per cent a year ago due to Covid-related claims.

Profit after tax of the general insurance business also fell to Rs 362 crore from Rs 395 crore in the year-ago quarter.

On Tuesday, shares of Bajaj Finserv ended 0.9 per cent lower at Rs 12,613 on the National Stock Exchange.