India's REC profit rises 5% in third quarter on lower expenses

India's state-owned infrastructure finance company REC Ltd RECLTD on Monday reported a 5.1% rise in third-quarter profit, as it cut down its total expenses.

The New Delhi-based non-banking financial company's profit rose to 29.15 billion rupees ($357.71 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 27.73 billion rupees a year earlier, it said in a statement. Total revenue from operations fell 2.5% to 97.82 billion rupees.

However, a 6.5% drop in total expenses during the quarter offset the fall in total operations revenue.

The company, which mainly provides loans to state electricity boards, state utilities and all segments of power infrastructure in the private sector, said its interest income on loan assets grew nearly 1% to 96.60 billion rupees.

REC declared interim dividend of 3.25 rupees per share. It set the record date for the dividend on Feb. 9, which will be paid on Feb. 28.

Shares of the company closed up 0.7% to 115.95 rupees ahead of the quarterly results. The stock gained 16.1% in 2022.

($1 = 81.4910 Indian rupees)