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Freedom251 › Blog › Indian stocks

IREDA vs PFC vs REC: How to Compare India’s Power-Finance Stocks

By Freedom251 Team · · 4 min read

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IREDA is the specialist renewable-energy lender; PFC finances a broader range of power-sector projects, and REC is PFC’s subsidiary. They are not three independent versions of the same business. A useful comparison looks at each lender’s mandate and actual loan portfolio, then checks growth, credit quality, capital, funding and valuation on matched dates and reporting bases.

How do IREDA, PFC and REC differ?

IREDA’s focus is renewable-energy lending. Its FY2024–25 annual report records a loan book of ₹76,282 crore at 31 March 2025, up from ₹59,698 crore a year earlier, and disbursements of ₹30,168 crore during FY2025. These are company-reported figures for the dates and period stated, not a same-date comparison with PFC and REC. IREDA Annual Report 2024–25

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PFC is a broader power-sector financier. ICRA describes it as a government-established development financier for domestic power projects and identifies REC as its subsidiary. That corporate relationship matters: comparing PFC and REC as wholly independent peers can obscure overlap in ownership and exposure. ICRA’s PFC rating rationale, 25 March 2026

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PFC describes its role this way: “Since 1986, we’ve been at the forefront of financing power projects, championing innovation and infrastructure development across the nation.” This is the company’s own positioning, not an independent assessment. PFC investor relations

What should you compare before judging the stocks?

Mandate and actual loan portfolio

Start with the stated business focus, but verify it against the latest portfolio disclosures. Compare exposure to renewable generation, other generation, transmission, distribution and newer energy segments. A strategy statement describes intent; the loan book shows where lending is actually concentrated.

Growth and earnings

Use the same fiscal period and the same basis—standalone or consolidated—for all three. Compare sanctions and disbursements as well as loan-book growth, net interest income, operating costs and profit after tax. A larger lender may report much larger absolute earnings without growing faster; growth rates and underlying drivers help separate scale from momentum.

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Credit quality

Review gross and net non-performing assets, stage 3 assets where reported, provisioning coverage, recoveries and borrower or sector concentration. Definitions and recognition periods may differ, so do not assume ratios are directly comparable without checking each company’s disclosures. Rapid lending growth is not, by itself, evidence of stronger credit quality.

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Capital and funding

Capital adequacy is one useful measure of capacity to absorb losses and support lending, but it is not a complete risk assessment. Read it alongside leverage, funding mix, borrowing costs and the maturity profile of liabilities. A business’s ability to raise funds on sustainable terms can matter as much as the rate at which its loan book expands.

Ownership and distributions

Check current shareholding disclosures, dividend history, board-approved distributions and any capital raising. Government ownership and the PFC–REC parent-subsidiary relationship are relevant context, but they do not remove business, credit or market risk.

Valuation

Compare price-to-book, earnings multiples and dividend yield using one market-price date and clearly identified earnings or book-value denominators. State whether the figures use trailing or forward earnings, and whether the financials are standalone or consolidated. Multiples can change with share prices and reporting updates; a low multiple alone does not establish that a share is undervalued.

How to read the available dated figures

ICRA’s 25 March 2026 rating rationale reported the following PFC standalone figures at the 9M FY2026 reporting point: a ₹5,69,627 crore loan book, ₹13,727 crore profit after tax, 22.4% capital adequacy and 1.6% gross NPA. These are a dated, standalone snapshot for PFC—not FY2026 year-end results and not a harmonized comparison with IREDA or REC. ICRA’s PFC rating rationale, 25 March 2026

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IREDA’s FY2024–25 annual-report figures and ICRA’s 9M FY2026 PFC figures refer to different reporting periods, and the cited figures do not provide a matched set for REC. They should not be placed in a ranking or used to claim which lender currently has the strongest growth, asset quality or valuation.

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How to make a fair three-company comparison

  1. Collect the latest underlying filings. Use IREDA’s financial-results page and annual report, and PFC’s annual-report, investor-presentation and announcements pages. Index pages can help locate documents, but confirm each figure in the underlying filing. IREDA financial results, PFC annual reports, PFC investor presentations and PFC announcements.
  2. Align the reporting basis. Label every figure by date or fiscal period and identify whether it is standalone or consolidated. Do not combine one company’s annual result with another’s interim result without making that difference explicit.
  3. Check each definition. Confirm how each company reports NPAs, provisions, capital adequacy and loan-book measures before comparing ratios.
  4. Use one market-price date for valuation. Pair the share price with a clearly named earnings or book-value measure, and specify trailing or forward figures. If the dates or denominators differ, the multiples are not a like-for-like comparison.
  5. Interpret the numbers in context. Weigh growth against credit quality, concentration, provisioning, funding and capital capacity; treat PFC and REC’s parent-subsidiary relationship as part of the comparison.

Why a “cheaper multiple” is not a complete answer

Investors sometimes ask why they should consider IREDA when PFC and REC appear to trade at lower multiples. The available figures here do not establish current, same-date valuation multiples for all three, so they cannot settle that question. Even with matched multiples, the comparison would need to account for differences in business focus, portfolio risk, growth, capital needs, earnings quality and the relationship between PFC and REC. A lower multiple is a starting point for analysis, not a verdict on relative value.

For a decision grounded in current numbers, update the filings and share prices first, then compare all three using the same date conventions and definitions. The figures cited above are useful reference points, but they are not an investment recommendation or a current three-stock ranking.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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Indian stocksinvestingIREDAPFCpower financeRECrenewable energy

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