Volume growth pushes Dewan Housing Apr-Jun net

MUMBAI, July 28 (Reuters) - Private sector mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd (DWNH.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) has posted a 38.5 percent rise in Apr-June net profit as higher disbursements cushioned the rise in cost of funds, a senior official said. "Our disbursements have gone up by 16 percent and we expect it to grow by 25 percent by the end of this fiscal," Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Kapil Wadhawan told Reuters.

The company, which predominantly operates in rural and semi-urban areas, disbursed 4.73 billion rupees during the quarter, taking its total loan book size to nearly 45 billion rupees, he said.

The cost of funds for the company has risen to 10.2 percent from 9.9 percent during the same period last year. However, it has passed on the increase to its borrowers since 80 percent of its loans are on a floating rate basis, Wadhawan said.

The company's net non-performing assets (NPA) has gone up marginally to 1.43 percent, he said.

"We have complete control on delinquencies and hope to maintain it (net NPA) to March 08 numbers in absolute terms until the end of this fiscal," he said. Its net NPA as of March 2008 was 550 million rupees.

Shares in the company ended 1.95 percent higher at 112.15 rupees in the Mumbai market.

(Reporting by Kaustav Roy; editing by Sunil Nair)