BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian gold loan provider Muthoot Finance reported a 26% rise in its second-quarter profit on Thursday, boosted by strong loan demand, and raised its gold loan growth forecast for the financial year 2025.
The company’s standalone quarterly profit rose to 12.51 billion rupees from 9.91 billion rupees a year earlier.
This was largely in line with analysts’ average estimate of 12.58 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Domestic gold prices surged to record highs during the quarter, driving loan growth for lenders such as Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance.
Rising prices of bullion benefit gold financiers as they increase the value of collateral gold and as more customers seek loans against higher-valued assets.
The company also revised its annual forecast for gold loan growth to 25% from a prior view of 15%, Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot said in a statement.
Muthoot’s standalone loan assets under management jumped about 31% to 901.97 billion rupees as of the quarter ended Sept. 30, helped by a 28% jump in its core gold loan portfolio.
The company’s interest income rose about 35% to 40.69 billion rupees.
Earlier this month, Manappuram Finance reported an unexpected growth in second-quarter profit as strong performance in its mainstay gold loan segment offset higher provisions.
Shares of Muthoot Finance ended 0.3% higher ahead of the results on Thursday.
(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Dimpal Gulwani; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
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