Chennai, May 18 (Reporter)Sundaram Home Finance has registered a 10% rise in its net profit for the year ended March 31, 2024 at Rs. 236 crores as compared to Rs. 215 crores registered in the previous year ended March 31, 2023. A company release issued here on Friday night said during the year, the company crossed Rs. 5000 crores in disbursements and ended the year with disbursements of Rs 5039 crores registering an increase of 27% over the previous year. The company had registered disbursements of Rs. 3978 crores in the previous year ended 31st March 2023. The Assets Under Management registered an increase of 24% and stood at Rs. 13812 crores as on 31 st March 2024 as compared to Rs. 11180crores as on 31 st March 2023. The company’s deposit based stood at Rs. 2172crores (Rs.1956crores) as on 31 st March 2024. For the fourth quarter ended 31 st March 2024, the company registered net profit of Rs. 57 crores as compared to Rs. 65crores registered in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The disbursements for q4 ended 31 st March 2024 went up 20% to Rs. 1469crores as compared to Rs. 1222crores registered in the q4 ended 31 st March 2023. Commenting on the performance in FY24, Lakshminarayanan Duraiswamy, MD, Sundaram Home Finance said, “It has been a good year for the real estate segment with consistent demand from home buyers. Driven by our growing new branch network, penetration into smaller towns, strong growth momentum in the Tier 2 and 3 towns in the South and solid contribution from the MP and Rajasthan region, we were able to achieve a significant milestone of Rs. 5000crores in disbursements in FY24.” Last year, Sundaram Home Finance continued to expand and strengthen its branch expansion in remote locations and opened over 20 new branches including in Rajapalayam, Dharapuram, Marthandam and Tiruppur in TN, Kamareddy, Sangareddy, Sathupalli and Kompally in Telangana and Jodhpur and Ajmer in Rajasthan. The company now has 150 branches across the country. As part of its expansion, the company hired over 400 people in FY24, he said. The small business loans (SBL) segment where the company offers business loans of up to Rs.20lakhs to small entrepreneurs has done well in the first 18months. The company, which launched this offering in October 2022, has opened 30exclusive SBL branches in TN and achieved disbursements of over Rs. 125crores. On the outlook, Lakshminarayanan said, “Given that the small towns in the South Market are seeing a good pace of growth on the back of increased affordability, we continue to be positive on the outlook for the real estate sector and are hopeful that the growth momentum will continue". "Our focus will be to penetrate deeper into smaller towns. We will also look at exploring opportunities in Tier 4 towns in South India and expect these new locations to drive our growth this year. We have recently expanded our presence outside the South market, in Maharashtra and Rajasthan and will continue to identify pockets of growth opportunities and steadily strengthen our base in West and Central India, going forward...////...