Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) has clarified that its liquidity position remains strong and it has no exposure to infrastructure giant Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Group. The clarification comes after one of its worst day of trading, which saw shares of the housing finance company tanked 60 per cent intra-day on Friday to hit a 52-week low of Rs 246.25. It eventually recovered some of its losses, but still ended down over 42 per cent at Rs 351.55.
According to some analysts, a mutual fund tried selling commercial papers (CP) of DHFL in the secondary market, but due to a tight liquidity in the system, it had to be sold at a higher yield. Some reports also stating it had exposure to the debt hit IL&FS, spooked investors.
Kapil Wadhawan, chairman and managing director of DHFL, clarified that the company had not defaulted on any repayment of any liability nor did it have any exposure to IL&FS.
“Our fundamentals are strong and we hold a strong liquidity of approximately Rs 10,000 crore in the system which equates to 6 months of cash. Our CP book shall be about 6 per cent of our total borrowings, and the total assets and liability book is over Rs 1 lakh crore. We shall remain cash surplus even after considering repayment till March 2019 of all our liabilities on account of CP, NCD (non-convertible debentures), interest payment, bank dues etc,” he said.
Wadhawan further added that its borrowing was well diversified with a banking consortium of 31 banks, NCDs, CPs, ECB (external commercial borrowings) and masala bonds. DHFL also has a public deposit portfolio of Rs 10,803 crore.
He also pointed out that the company still enjoyed a high credit rating of AAA from Care as well as Brickworks Ratings and there had been no downgrade. The promoters have also not pledged any shares or availed loan against shares, he added.
For the quarter-ending June 30, DHFL had reported a net profit of Rs 435 crore, while total income stood at Rs 3,156 crore.