Housing Finance half year loss expands to Ksh.346 million

Mortgage centered lender Housing Finance Group (HF) has seen its half year loss expand by 17 per cent to Ksh.346.1 million from a loss of Ksh.295.5 million last year.

The widened loss is largely attributable to the bank’s falling income with total operating income in the period easing by 7.7 per cent to Ksh.1.2 billion.

The fall in income emanates from a reduction in net interest income to Ksh.919.9 million from Ksh.987.3 million which offset a 13.8 per cent increase in non-funded income to Ksh.325.1 million.

Meanwhile, HF’s non-interest based expenses remained flat at Ksh.1.6 billion despite trimming its loan-loss provisioning costs to Ksh.58.3 million.

The reduction in impairments has been anchored on a notable 21 per cent decline in gross non-performing loans (NPLs) to Ksh.9.4 billion.

HF’s balance sheet has also shrunk with total assets falling by 6.2 per cent to Ksh.53 billion.

Net loans and advances to customers have declined to Ksh.35.3 billion from Ksh.38.2 billion while customer deposits have declined to Ksh.37.8 billion.

Housing Finance is now in breach of some capital adequacy provisions after an accumulation of losses over time including its core capital to total risk weighted assets and total capital to total risk weighted assets.

Nevertheless, the banks core capital and liquidity levels remain adequate at Ksh.3.9 billion and 22.2 per cent respectively.