India’s Muthoot Finance beats quarterly profit view on strong loan growth – Markets

BENGALURU: Indian gold loan financier Muthoot Finance reported a bigger-than-expected 90% surge in first-quarter profit on Wednesday, aided by higher loan demand as prices of the precious metal soared.

Muthoot Finance reported a profit of 20.46 billion rupees ($233.91 million) for the April-June quarter, above analysts’ estimate of 16.24 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.

Gold prices hit multiple record highs during the quarter. This benefits gold financiers as higher prices increase the collateral value, allowing borrowers to secure larger loans for the same amount of gold.

Additionally, tighter lending in the unsecured segment prompted people to shift to gold loans as an alternative source of funds, analysts said.

Muthoot Finance’s standalone loan assets under management rose 42% year-on-year to 1.2 trillion rupees at the end of the quarter, and interest income jumped about 53% to 55.92 billion rupees.

“We are well-positioned to sustain strong growth through fiscal 2026 and beyond,” Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot said in a statement.

The company also approved equity infusion of 5 billion rupees and 2 billion rupees in its units, Muthoot Money and Muthoot Homefin, respectively.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}