(Bloomberg) -- Housing Development Finance Corp. posted a 16% rise in fourth quarter profit led by strong demand for home loans as the pandemic eased.

Net income stood at 37 billion rupees ($484 million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with 31.8 billion rupees a year ago. That beat the average estimate of 33.2 billion rupees in a Bloomberg survey.

The country’s largest mortgage lender, which is in the process of merging with HDFC Bank, has seen robust demand for home loans led by revival in consumer spending as the intensity of infections from the pandemic eased. After the merger with the country’s second-largest lender, the combined entity will be twice as large as ICICI Bank, the third largest in India.

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The Mumbai-based financier set aside 4 billion rupees in provisions for the bad loans during the quarter, up from 3.9 billion rupees three months earlier, and 7.2 billion rupees a year ago. Shares in HDFC were trading 1.25% higher at 2 pm in Mumbai.  

Other key details from HDFC earnings:

• Gross bad loan ratio was 1.91% in March quarter vs 2.3% three months ago

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