Crisil, CARE reaffirm ratings for LIC Housing Finance

Rating agency CARE has reaffirmed its ‘AAA' rating of LIC Housing Finance's debt instruments.

CARE has reaffirmed the AAA rating of LIC Housing Finance's non-convertible debentures aggregating to Rs 18,322 crore.

CARE has also reaffirmed the ‘AAA' rating for tier-II bonds of Rs 750 crore and upper Tier-II bonds of Rs 1,600 crore of LIC HF.

Last week, rating agency Crisil had reaffirmed its highest rating on LIC HF's debt instruments, bank loans, commercial papers and fixed deposit programme.

While reaffirming the rating, Crisil said the parent LIC's continued support works in the housing finance company's favour.

LIC Housing's exposure to the real estate developer segment is at a manageable level of around 11 per cent of its total loan book, Crisil said.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in this segment were negligible at 0.08 per cent as on October 31, 2010 (overall gross NPAs stood at 0.74 per cent as on September 30, 2010), the agency said.

LIC Housing's current liquidity is also comfortable, reflected in unencumbered cash and bank balances and investments in liquid mutual funds of around Rs 950 crore as on November 29.

Source: Businessline