LIC Housing Finance plans to raise funds via green bonds in next financial year

New Delhi: LIC Housing Finance, the mortgage arm of insurance behemoth LIC, plans to mobilise funds through green bonds in the coming financial year with an aim to finance environmentally-sustainable housing projects.

"Green financing is something that we will look at the next year and we would deploy the fund for financing green housing projects," LIC Housing Finance MD and CEO Tribhuwan Adhikari told PTI in an interaction.

LIC Housing Finance will have its board meeting on March 7 to consider and approve the borrowing plan for 2024-2025 through loans or issue of redeemable non-convertible debentures, zero couponed bonds, subordinate debt, Tier II bonds or any other means approved by the regulator.

Adhikari said the company hopes to hit the net profit of Rs 5,000 crore-milestone by the end of current financial year on the back of robust loan demand and expansion in non-core business.

The non-core businesses include Loan Against Property (LAP) and affordable housing finance, he said.

"Affordable housing segment remained strong in tier-2 and tier-3 markets. We remained focused on this segment, as it gives an opportunity to millions of aspiring Indians to own their home with a moderate budget," he said.

In addition to business growth, he said, "our endeavour has been to improve service standards through ongoing digital transformation of our processes".

With fourth quarter usually being the most important business months for the company, and going by the current trends, he said, "we expect to close this financial year with healthy numbers."

He said, the company has earned a net profit of Rs 3,675 crore in the three quarters and hope to touch the milestone of Rs 5,000 crore by the end of this financial year.

During 2022-23, the biggest housing finance company had earned a net profit of Rs 2,891 crore.

Net Interest Margin (NIM) for the quarter ended December 2023 was 3 per cent as against 2.41 per cent recorded in December 2022.