Finance company Five-Star Business Finance announced Q4FY25 results Financial Highlights: Total income of Rs. 760 crore; YoY growth of 23%. PBT of Rs.371 crore; YoY growth of 18%. PAT of Rs.279 crore; YoY growth of 18%. ROA at 8.04%; QoQ decrease of 6 bps and YoY decrease of 39 bps. ROE at 18.36%; QoQ decrease of 13 bps and YoY decrease of 29 bps. Distribution: The Company has increased its branch presence to 748 branches across 11 states / UT. During the quarter, the company opened 19 new branches. Disbursals – The Company disbursed an amount of Rs 1,460 crore in Q4FY25 as against Rs 1,336 in Q4FY24. Assets under Management: AUM as of March 31, 2025 ended at Rs 11,877 crore, growth of 23% on YoY basis and 6% on QoQ basis. AUM is well distributed across 0.46 mn active loans. Collections & Asset Quality: Collection efficiency for the quarter stood at 97.7%. Unique customer collection efficiency for the quarter stood at 96.2%. 30+ DPD ended at 9.65% as of March 31, 2025. Provisions: ECL provision carried on books was 193 crore (excluding ECL maintained on inter-corporate deposits), which translates to 1.63% of the overall AUM. Stage 3 provision was at 109 crore leading to a provision coverage ratio on stage 3 assets of 51.31%. Borrowings: Total borrowings including debt securities are at Rs 7,922 crore as on March’25. The company continues to carry a liquidity of Rs 2,295 crore as on March’25. Cost of incremental debt during the quarter dropped sharply to 9.29% (as against the cost of incremental debt of 9.56% for the previous quarter). Cost of funds on overall borrowing book for the quarter was at 9.63%. Lakshmipathy Deenadayalan, Chairman & Managing Director, said: "It has been a good quarter for Five Star, and the most notable happening during the current quarter was that we were back on track as far as our disbursements are concerned, recording a QoQ disbursement growth of 55%. We had consciously slowed down our disbursements last quarter to get to an AUM growth of 25% and we were able to put our disbursements on track this quarter. Our portfolio grew by 6% on QoQ basis and 23% for the full year. The disruption in Karnataka on account of the ordinance made us pause our disbursements in the state leading a shortfall in growth for the full year. But, as a company, we are focused on “Quality Growth” and not growth for the sake of growth. There was a small uptick in our DPD and NPA numbers during the quarter, as a result of the trickling effect of overleverage crisis on secured portfolio coupled with the disruption in Karnataka. But I can still say confidently that this would still be the best asset quality amongst companies lending to our borrower profile. During this quarter, we disbursed Rs 1,460 crore of loans as against INR 941 crore in Q3FY25 recording a disbursement growth of 55%. We added 19 branches during Q4FY25 leading to a strong branch network of 748 branches across 10 states and 1 union territory. We continue to invest in and maintain an appropriate infrastructure framework which will ensure that the Company has the right framework to manage risk in an appropriate manner. On the collections front, we saw a good set of numbers for Q4, despite the headwinds mentioned above. Our unique customer collections came in at 96.2 %, which is a very marginal drop from the previous quarter, and we had an overall collection efficiency of 97.7%. When viewed from a sectoral context, both are impressive numbers. Consequent to the slight drop in collections, there was also a marginal increase in gross NPA by 17 bps from 1.62% in Q3FY25 to 1.79% in the current quarter. We also saw a marginal inch-up in our 30+ which stood at 9.65% as of Q4FY25. We will continue our sharp focus on collections to ensure that the asset quality remains one of the best in the industry. \During the quarter, we availed incremental debt of Rs 1,100 crore and the cost of incremental debt came in at 9.29%, which is 27 bps lower than the cost of incremental debt borrowed during the previous quarter. We continue to diversify our borrowing sources leading to our borrowing from banks dropping from 79% in March’24 to 63% in March’25. Cost of funds on the book has almost remained flat at 9.63% for the quarter. In addition to unavailed sanctions of Rs 100 crore, we continue to have a robust liquidity on the balance sheet of Rs 2,295 crore. Our profitability remains one of the best in the industry and we achieved a PAT of 279 crore for the quarter, which is 18% higher than the PAT achieved in Q4FY24. For the full year, we touched the 4-digit PAT for the first time in the history of Five Star. We clocked a PAT of 1,073 crore as against 836 crore for FY24, a growth of 28%. To commemorate this achievement, the Board has also recommended a dividend of Rs 2 per share, which works out to 200% on the face value and translating to a dividend payout of 5.5%. I would also like to assure that this would not have any major impact on our capital adequacy or our need for capital in the future." Result PDF