Bajaj Finance share price closes higher on invocation of pledged shares of Karvy Data Management

Bajaj Finance share price closed higher a day after the non-banking finance company said it has invoked 24 lakh pledged shares of Karvy Data Management Services (KDMSL) to recover outstanding dues from a group firm. Share price of Bajaj Finance closed 1.07% or 43 points higher  at Rs 4,134 in an otherwise flat market today. The large cap stock has gained after two days of fall.

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It has gained 59.55% during last one year and rose 56.55% since the beginning of this year. Bajaj Finance stock is 3.67% away from its 52-week high of Rs 4,277 on BSE.

"The shares of KDMSL were pledged with the company (Bajaj Finance) for securing the outstanding dues of Karvy Stock Broking (KSBL), the borrower company. The company has invoked the pledged shares of KDMSL for recovery of its dues," Bajaj Finance said. Bajaj Finance said it bought 24 lakh equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each representing 10 per cent of the paid up capital of KDMSL. KDMSL was incorporated in April 2008 in Telangana for providing IT solutions.

The company had a turnover of Rs 1,274.39 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 886.94 crore in 2017-18. The unlisted company's profit stood at Rs 75.20 crore in the last financial year. Even as NBFCs have been suffering due to a demand slowdown and IL&FS crisis during the last one year, Bajaj Finance has managed to report a 63.11 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs 1,506.29 crore for the quarter ended September 2019 against Rs 923.47 crore profit in the corresponding quarter last year.

Total revenue from operations increased 47.95 per cent YoY to Rs 6,322.55 crore during the quarter under review. In the first quarter of current fiscal too, Bajaj Finance reported a 43% rise in net profit, driven by a jump in assets under management. Q1 profit rose to Rs 1,195 crore as compared to Rs 836 crore in the year-ago period.

Assets under management rose 41% to Rs 1,28,898 crore against Rs 91,287 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. The NBFC reported a 50 per cent rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,114 crore in last quarter of the fiscal ended March 2019 compared to net profit of Rs 743 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income during January-March quarter of 2018-19 rose to Rs 4,887.76 crore from Rs 3,424.99 crore in the year-ago period.

By Aseem Thapliyal