27th January 2022, Mumbai: “HomeFirst has crossed INR 5,000 Crores AUM in the month of January 2022. This is a significant milestone in the journey of HomeFirst. In its eleven-year journey, the company has provided housing loans to more than 60,000 customers across 13 States/UT in the country. We are grateful to our employees, customers, business partners, regulators and shareholders for placing their faith in us and encouraging us through our 12-year journey. Our objective has always been to simplify the home loan process for first-time homebuyers and provide them excellent service through state-of-the-art technology adoption.
Commenting on the performance Mr. Manoj Viswanathan, MD & CEO said,
Our Q3 FY22 performance was in-line with our internal expectations, with the highest-ever disbursals again at INR 570 Crs. We recorded an AUM growth of 26.7% y-o-y and sequential growth in PAT of 6.6%. Q3 FY22 did not witness any major disruption from Covid and hence was a normal quarter for HomeFirst. We are also working to bring our asset quality to pre-covid levels. Significant improvements in 1+ DPD and 30+ DPD number for Q3 compared to Q2 indicates that it is progressing in the right direction. We are pleased to share that ICRA has revised the outlook on HomeFirst’s long term credit rating from A+ “Stable’ to A+ ‘Positive’.
Bounce rates improved in Jan’22 to 15.2% (Q3 FY22 – 15.7%, Q2 FY22 – 16.5%). 1+ DPD improved from 7.6% to 6.5% on q-o-q basis. 30+ DPD improved from 5.2% to 4.7% on q-o-q basis. Our Gross Stage 3 (GNPA) stands at 2.6% in line with RBI circular dated 12 Nov 2021. Prior to such classification, it stands at 1.7% (Sep’21: 1.7%).
Digital adoption has further improved. Usage of the customer app for various activities has increased. 76% of our customers are registered on our app as of Dec’21 compared to 72% in Sept’21. Payments received via the app have gone up by 114% y-o-y. Over the years, we have made our systems more robust and constantly added meaningful features to enhance the customer experience – the latest being the addition of biometric login in our mobile app which greatly enhances the security for our customers.
We continue to strengthen our Board of Directors. After receiving shareholders approval for the appointment of Ms. Geeta Dutta Goel and Mr. Anuj Srivastava as Additional Directors, the Board of Directors based on the recommendation of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (subject to shareholders approval), has approved the proposal for the appointment of Ms. Sucharita Mukherjee as Additional Director on the Board of the Company to function as Non-Executive Independent Director; w.e.f. 1st Feb’22. Ms. Mukherjee’s vast experience in financial inclusion and developing mass-market financial solutions will further benefit HomeFirst and strengthen the Board.
We entered into a strategic co-lending partnership with the Union Bank of India (UBI) to offer home loans to customers at competitive interest rates. The partnership aims at leveraging the strengths of both entities to provide a seamless experience to retail home loan customers.
We believe that the opportunity in the affordable housing space is very large and will span multiple decades. The affordable Housing Finance sector remains one of the most resilient segments, validated through better collection efficiencies and asset quality compared to other segments. Besides, the inherent resilience of this sector, our focus on the salaried segment in industrialized and urbanized states helped us stay on course through these difficult times.
We aim to be a key player in this segment by continuously expanding our physical and digital presence. We are dedicated to our mission to be the fastest provider of home loans to aspiring middle-class customers. We remain committed to our strong tech-led operating model and continue to invest in building a trusted brand that delivers superior service to customers with industry-leading turnaround times.”
