Mumbai, Jan. 14: HDFC, the country’s largest housing finance company, beat forecasts to post a 33 per cent growth in net profit in the last quarter at Rs 890.88 crore against Rs 671.25 crore a year ago.

Analysts had put the net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010 in the region of Rs 850 crore.

Higher demand for loans and a one-time income from the sale of its investment in IL&FS pushed up profit.

Net interest income (interest earned minus interest paid) for the quarter was Rs 1,124.17 crore against Rs 943 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, a growth of 19 per cent.

For the nine-month period, after a tax of Rs 920 crore, the net profit increased 26 per cent to Rs 2,393.01 crore from Rs 1,900.11 crore in the year-ago period.

As on December 2010, the loan book stood at Rs 1,09,051 crore against Rs 90,410 crore in December 2009.

The spread on loans over the cost of borrowings for the nine-month period stood at 2.33 per cent.

According to the company, lending operations for the nine-month period were good with approvals growing at 29 per cent and disbursements rising 25 per cent over the corresponding period in the previous year.

HDFC’s gross non-performing loans as on December 2010 amounted to Rs 954.08 crore, and this was around 0.85 per cent of the loan portfolio, lower than 0.94 per cent in the previous year.

“We are hopeful of clocking a 20-25 per cent rise in the loan book for the full fiscal. We are also hopeful of maintaining a good interest spread and margins in the next quarter. In the third quarter, our net interest margin (NIM) stood at 4.31 per cent,’’ HDFC vice-chairman and chief executive Keki M. Mistry told reporters here today.

To meet the higher provisioning norms set by home finance regulator — the National Housing Board — for dual rate home loans, HDFC has made an additional provision of Rs 272 crore during the third quarter, Mistry said.

Recently, the NHB increased the provisioning coverage ratio of teaser loans to 2 per cent.

The sharp growth in net profit failed to enthuse investors.

HDFC slumped nearly 4 per cent on the BSE on rate hike concerns.