Central Depository Services (India) Limited — Q1 FY25

CDSL Q1 24/25 Earnings Conference Call https://stockanalysis.com/quote/nse/CDSL/transcripts/191198-q1-24-25/ Published: sourced from public earnings transcript

Operator Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the CDSL Q1 FY 2025 Earnings Conference Call hosted by HDFC Securities. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Ladies and gentlemen, please note that CDSL does not provide specific revenue or earnings guidance. Anything said on this call, which reflects CDSL's outlook for the future or which could be constituted as forward-looking statements, must be reviewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Yeah, thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of HDFC Securities, we welcome you all to the CDSL Q1 FY 2025 earnings call. Today, we have with us the management team of CDSL, represented by Mr. Nehal Vora, MD and CEO, Mr. Girish Amesara, CFO, and other senior leaders. We'll start with a brief overview of the quarter by Mr. Nehal Vora, and then we will open up the floor for questions. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Thank you, Amit. A very good afternoon and welcome to everyone. I hope each of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. Thank you for joining us today to discuss CDSL's financial results for the first quarter of the new financial year FY 2024, 2025. We have posted a detailed investor presentation on our website for your reference. I'm joined by the CDSL Group's leadership team, including the MDs of the subsidiaries. Let me start with the industry highlights. During the first quarter 2024, 2025, the Indian capital markets reached a significant milestone, with our total market capitalization surpassing $5 trillion. The average daily turnover surged by about more than 110% quarter-on-quarter and reached about INR 131,000 crore, compared to INR 65,500 crore in the same quarter last year. The overall activity in the Indian securities market saw a notable increase compared to the previous quarter. This quarter, India further strengthened its retail participation in the capital markets. The total number of demat accounts in India surpassed 60 crores in June 2024, with over 77% open with CDSL. As of June 30, 2024, CDSL had 12.55 crore registered accounts, compared to 8.83 crore in the June quarter last year, marking a 42% increase. We have leveraged growth of technology and extensive presence, especially in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities, to achieve this growth, further enhancing value to the shareholders and to mark the celebration of CDSL's 25th anniversary. The board, during its meeting on July 2, approved and recommended the issuance of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1, subject to shareholders' approval. While the CFO will cover the financial performance, I want to highlight that CDSL's performance is the result and culmination of the market dynamics and underscores our role as a trusted custodian of industry value. The presence of our services and needs of business due to quicker settlements and services and other services like e-AGM, e-DIS, the margin pledge system, e-voting, online account opening, et cetera, has had an important impact on the growth. As we celebrate our 25 years of operation, our focus remains on enhancing the capital market ecosystem by enhancing efficiency, trust, and safety transparency. We prioritize and focus on the Atmanirbhar investor, a lot of videos you would have seen on our social media, by striving for innovation and leading to consistent and sustainable financial and business performance. Before I hand it over to the CFO, I'd just like to say that the growth of the Indian securities market is an extremely encouraging step in India's potential. I also want to place our appreciation and gratitude to all our stakeholders, regulators, depository participants, investors, issuers, and all other market participants and employees for the constant faith in us. With this, I hand it over to the CFO for the financial performance. Over to you, Girish. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Thank you, Nehal. Good afternoon to everyone. Speaking of the quarterly performance on a consolidated basis, the total income for the quarter ended June 2024 has increased by 65% to INR 287 crores, as against INR 174 crores for the same quarter during the previous year. The net profits for the quarter ended June 2024 have increased by 82% at INR 134 crores, as against INR 74 crores for the same quarter during the previous year. On a turnover basis, the total income for the quarter ended June 2024 has increased by 30% to INR 221 crores, as against INR 174 crores for the same quarter during the previous year. The net profit for the quarter ended June 2024 has increased by 14% at INR 105 crores, as against INR 92 crores for the same quarter during the previous year. Now, I'll hand it over to Sunil. Thank you. Over to you, Sunil . Sunil Alvares Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Ventures Limited Yeah, thanks, Girish. So far as CVL is concerned, we had a decent quarter for the June quarter ending 2024. The total income was up 110% to INR 64 crores from INR 32 crores in the same period of 2023. With regard to the total expenses, the total expenses increased by 62% to INR 26 crores from INR 16 crores for the quarter ending June 2023. The profit before tax was up by 141% to INR 37 crores for the quarter ending June 2024, as compared to the profit before tax of INR 15.63 crores for the quarter ending June 2023. The profit after tax increased by 140% to INR 28.55 crores, as compared to INR 11.90 crores for the quarter ending June 2023. With this, I would like to open the floor for the questions and answers. Thank you. Operator Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Supratim Datta from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead. Supratim Datta Vice President Equity Research, AMBIT Capital Hello. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the call. Operator Sorry to interrupt you, sir. May I request you to please use your handset? Supratim Datta Vice President Equity Research, AMBIT Capital Yes. Is this better now? Operator Yes, sir. Please go ahead. Supratim Datta Vice President Equity Research, AMBIT Capital Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the cost side. Just wanted to understand what is driving the technology cost growth. It has been fairly steep while it's gone up. It's nearly doubled. So just wanted to understand what are the key building blocks here. Two is, in the second half of this year, the compulsory dematerialization of private company shares that is supposed to kick in. Now, just wanted to understand what sense of the market do you have at this point, because now it's more like three months out. So just wanted to understand, do you have a sense of the market? Have you made any investments already on this front, or would you make the investments, be it on technology side, once this opportunity starts to come through? That's the second question. And lastly, on the KRA business, the business has grown fairly strongly. Just wanted to understand what would be the split of the business that you receive from brokers versus mutual funds within this KRA segment. If you could give us some sense of where the revenue is coming from, that would be very helpful. Thank you. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So yeah. So on the first point, we are like an infrastructure company, as I said many times before on the investor call. Technology and human resources are two building blocks for building this infrastructure. And there has to be technology that doesn't build fast enough. We need to plan it well. And as the growth happens, we need to plan for our hardware, application, security, and all components of technology. This is more of a proactive investment, which will continue to happen to ensure that we continue to have the best type of technology platforms for the market, which are best-in-class in terms of the leading practices. And technology, as you know, evolves also a lot. So we need to ensure that the best-in-class products are used for all our platforms. So that's on the first question. On the second question, as I said earlier, it's compulsory not for all private limited companies. There are certain conditions under which it will be made compulsory. There are certain thresholds for sales and share capital, and only those companies will be required to dematerialize if they transfer their shares or they raise any share capital. So it will have to be seen how it pans out. However, we have built and augmented our resources, both on the technology and human resource standpoint, to ensure that we are able to process the load which will come in, and we are fully prepared for it. The third question I'll ask Sunil to answer. Sunil Alvares Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Ventures Limited See, the same question has been clarified earlier also. As a KRA, I do not really know how many mutual funds are actually using, I mean, the split between the mutual fund and the brokers, because today, currently, most of the transactions are happening on the exchange platform. And the exchange platforms are opening a demat from broking account, and then the transactions are getting credited into the investor account. I hope that answers your question. Supratim Datta Vice President Equity Research, AMBIT Capital Yeah. That actually helps. Just one follow-up on that technology question. I understand your point that you will continue to invest in this side of the business. I would just wanted to understand that from the Q1 piece, should we see further acceleration over the next few quarters, or this is the run rate that you plan for the coming quarters as well? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL We don't give any forward-looking statements, but the overall ethos is to build a robust, resilient platform. And whatever it takes, we will have to continue to build in terms of cost. But I will not be able to comment specifically whether the same run rate will continue or not, because we don't give any forward-looking statements. Supratim Datta Vice President Equity Research, AMBIT Capital Understood. That's very helpful. Thanks, sir. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So my first question is on the transaction charges. So obviously, we had the impact of the rate cut that we had. So I just wanted to clarify whether we had the full quarter impact in the first quarter or there is a spillover in the Q2 as well. And also, in terms of the revenue from others, which excludes the online data, IPO corporate action, transaction, and issuer, there is a significant jump. So if you can clarify, is there any revenue from insurance also that we have booked in that, and how do you see the insurance opportunity coming up? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah. So on the first question, Amit, the first of June is from when the transaction charges and deduction has come into play. So it has not had the full quarter, it's one month of the quarter which has ended. On the second one, I'll ask the CFO, Girish, to answer on the IPO and other revenue stream. And I'll ask Latesh Shetty, who is the CEO of the insurance repository, to answer on the insurance opportunity. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL So Amit, any issuer charge is solely pertaining to CDSL, and it does not have any component of CIRL. In terms of your next question was in terms of IPO corporate actions, right? Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities No, no, sir. I was asking the revenue excluding all these two. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Other income? Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Yeah. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Okay. So other income is largely consisting of investment income, e-voting charges, CAS charges. These are the main three heads under the other income. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. So the other income has increased to INR 26 crore. If I exclude the interest income, so from INR 20 crore to INR 26 crore, that has seen a jump. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Largely, it is contributed by CAS and followed by e-voting. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. Okay. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL e-CAS statement income. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. So if you can qualify the e-CAS and the e-Voting in this quarter, because we have been giving that. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL In terms of e-CAS statement income, we have recorded an income of INR 11 crores in this quarter. In terms of e-Voting, we have recorded an income of INR 5.6 crores in this quarter. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. So in terms of the technology cost, you mentioned that obviously it is being done for the over system. But post the cyber attack that we had, there has been the significant jump in the technology cost. Just want to understand, is this a compulsory investment that we're doing, or is this based on the regulatory guidelines, or based on the growth that we are having, we are investing upfront, or is it the compulsory investment that has to be done? How do you see that? Maybe until how long will this kind of elevated investments be required? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So the malware, which was found by our own systems, which was detected and switched off, what happened way back in November 2022, so it's 2022. So it's been about one and a half, nearly two years. So I don't think that has anything to do. This has got to do with ensuring that the platform becomes more in tune with the latest technology products. We want to give the best kind of offerings to the market and to local investors. Also, as the volumes grow, we need to plan for our capacity, et cetera. The requisite applications have to be upgraded. This is really the roadmap to ensure that CDSL as a depository is able to cater to the requiring demands of the market, at the same time giving the best kind of offerings to the securities market so that people can continue to have the keys as they move forward. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. I'll be back in with you. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit. From Tara Capital. Please go ahead. Mohit Motwani Equity Research Analyst, Tara Capital Hello. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on good set of numbers. My first question is on the employee cost. So I think we were to have some salary increments in this quarter, as we had mentioned on the previous earnings call. So just want to understand what expenses sequentially dip in employee cost? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL I'm sorry. Could you repeat that last sentence? I couldn't hear that. Mohit Motwani Equity Research Analyst, Tara Capital I was saying the employee cost has seen a dip sequentially. I think the impact of increments were to come in this quarter, as mentioned in the previous earnings call. So I was saying what explains the sequential drop in employee cost? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Sequential drop in the employee cost? I don't think there has been any drop in the employee cost. It is part of the variable pay and the increments get factored in after going through the appraisal process, and that gets factored in. Mohit Motwani Equity Research Analyst, Tara Capital So previous quarter was INR 276 crore, and this quarter was INR 267 crore. So that's the reason I saw a dip. So that's the reason for the question. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Now, Girish, from the perspective, normally we consider the increments and growth and growth in the first quarter of the new financial year. Now, what happens is that whatever excess or whatever adjustment needs to be made are done in the month of March by closing the financial statement. So it might happen in some quarters that the March and June quarter are quite similar. Mohit Motwani Equity Research Analyst, Tara Capital Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. And for the quarter, what were the regulatory charges for the quarter? I think that we shared you do share that, right? Regulatory charges for the quarter, if you can share. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah. I can ask Girish. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL That is INR 11 crore. I think it is mentioned in the investor PPT. We are giving detailed breakup of all the expense heads and income heads in the investor PPT. Mohit Motwani Equity Research Analyst, Tara Capital Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's all. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead. Madhukar Ladha Equity Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities Hi sir. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Just one question. From October, the SEBI circular on true-to-label will also come into effect. So how are you planning to approach that? I believe you'll probably have to revise your charges, transaction charges, especially as a result of that. So I wanted to understand how that will work. Second, also wanted to understand how would the real-time settlement really impact transaction charges? Has there been any thought process around that or any development around that? So these two would be my questions. Thank you. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Sure. So on the first question, it is work in progress. We are working out. It will have to be approved by the board and then sent to SEBI for its approval. The depository charges get approved by SEBI before it is done. That's work in progress. You will see how that will factor that in. I will not be able to reveal too many details at this stage because it's work in progress. As regards to your second question, Mohit, sorry, could you repeat your second question? Madhukar Ladha Equity Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities On the real-time settlement. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah, yeah. Real-time settlement. Madhukar Ladha Equity Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities Yeah. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So real-time settlement is yet sometime away. I think that has nothing to do with the charges at this stage. I think charges is on debits which we charge, irrespective of what is the frequency of the settlements, whether it's T+1, T+0, and anyway, instantaneous or T+0 is all are going to be on an optional basis. They're not on a compulsory basis as of now, as prescribed by the regulator. So I think the charges are going to be kind of identical, whether it is to the T+0 or T+1. We get charged amount, basically, the debits which happen. Madhukar Ladha Equity Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities Got it, sir. All the best. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Thank you. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Shah, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead. Prateek Shah Analyst, Individual Investor Am I audible? Operator Yes, sir. Mr. Prateek, you're audible. We have lost the connection of the current participant. We will move on to the next participant. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Prayesh Jain, from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Yeah. Hi, sir. Firstly, could you spell out the rationale for cutting the transaction charges? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL The real rationale of cutting the transaction charges is basically the economies of scale, which has happened. Therefore, the intent was to pass on that economies of scale to the market at large. As you'll be able to see a full quarter impact from the next quarter onwards. But if you take on a pro-rata basis of an average between June from where the reduction has happened on a simple average of three months, I don't think there has been any value-wise impact, which impact has been a positive impact which has happened. The intent is that more and more people would be encouraged to join the ecosystem, and we are passing on some part of that economies of scale to the market. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Just trying to get this again, but I'm extrapolating what you've done right now to the true-to-label charges. I think this cut was announced after the true-to-label charges announcement? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL No. It was prior. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Okay. So do you think that you will be at the lower end of the transaction charges in the True to Label? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL As I said, that is work in progress. I'm not able to state more of it till it goes through its process. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Got that. Got that. I'm sorry, with respect to insurance repository, how many companies are you engaged with today? Life insurance companies and health insurance companies? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL And last, Latesh to answer, is the MD and CEO of the Insurance Repository. Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited Yeah. Hi. Including life, health, and general insurance companies, we are signed up with 44 companies. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services 44 companies. What would be the scale that we would have achieved today in terms of number of policies and the revenue? Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited Quarter ending June, we have completed 1.4 million policies, predominantly to under life insurance. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Okay. Okay. Any numbers on revenue for the quarter? Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Quarter ending, I mean, we don't give breakup of operational and total. The total number of revenue that we have cost for the June quarter is total income is INR 99 lakhs. Prayesh Jain Lead Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Okay. Got it. Thank you so much. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sanket Godha, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead. Sanket Godha Analyst, Individual Investor Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my just simple question was that given we have taken a price cut in the transaction charges, and the lower end of the slab is 3.25, which is effective from first June. So if you can give a ballpark indicative number, average realization for the quarter per debit instruction? So just wanted to understand how much is the difference between lower end and the average realization? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL We don't give that breakup as part of funding, but you can take kind of off the cuff by seeing what is basically the revenue is seen as a total culmination of all that. But we don't give breakup as per each slab-wise. Sanket Godha Analyst, Individual Investor Okay. No, because the reason being asked is very simple that given we will have only one price going ahead from first October, so most likely management will decide closer to the average realization or it will be closer at the lower end of the slab. That's the reason I was trying to check the numbers. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So as I told you earlier, this goes through multiple levels of approval for various depository. SEBI also formally approves it as part of the operating instructions. So it goes through the approval of the board, and then it goes to SEBI for its approval of the operating instructions. So it will be difficult to kind of indicate. You will see as soon as the approval is got, we will be announcing it. Sanket Godha Analyst, Individual Investor Got it, sir. Some data keeping questions. Sir, if you typically give this data, impairment cost, income from unlisted companies, pledge income, and number of KYC records? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL We don't give a number of KYC records, but the other data we have given. Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Income from unlisted company for the quarter is INR 4.5 crore, and with respect to the impairment cost, it is roughly around INR 3 crore. Sanket Godha Analyst, Individual Investor 3 crores. And, sir, pledge income? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Sorry? Girish Amesara CFO, CDSL Pledge. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Pledge. Pledge is around INR 6.25 crores in this quarter. Sanket Godha Analyst, Individual Investor Okay. Sir, NSE came out with a circular that so many stocks are not eligible for pledge anymore. So with that regulation, just wanted to understand, do we see any impact on this line item because indicatively, the companies which have been withdrawn from pledge, do they materially contribute to our revenue in pledging income or not? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL See, I think we'll have to see how it goes. We don't give any future guidance. But principally, if you see, our charges are the same, whether it is a permitted stock or a non-permitted stock, it has to be pledged. People generally want to use the non-cash component, which is allowed up to 50% of the total margin exposure, to be used as non-cash. You don't lose any interest on it. So I think whether it is X number of stocks or Y number of stocks or within X certain part not profiting, I think the quantum should not typically be really impacted because people will substitute one stock for another stock to really pledge it. Sanket Godha Analyst, Individual Investor Got it. Got it, sir. Perfect. That's it from my side. Thank you. Operator Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Yes, sir. Thanks for the opportunity again. So in terms of the annual issue charges, obviously, in the first quarter, we see a jump. But if you can just give some more color in terms of how it has been driven in terms of number of folio growth and also in terms of how the mix has been in terms of slab-based and folio-based. And also, if you can give some color in terms of the annual issue charges, how much is from MF folio units and how much is from stock folios? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So we don't give these details out in the public domain. It is based on the overall SEBI circular, which describes the line item. You are aware of that, sir, slab versus folio. But this is not given out as part of our. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. But in terms of the growth that we have been seeing over the last 2, 3, 4 years, obviously, it has been driven by the number of folios. So if you can give the growth rate in terms of how the folios have grown over the years? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL We don't give the number of folios, but overall, the trend is as the number of participants, demat accounts grow, people are going to own that many more stocks, and therefore the folios are growing. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. And sir, in terms of the transaction charges, obviously, we have taken a cut. But have you seen any similar kind of cut from the competition as well? And as you said, that there is no impact in terms of value. So is it fair to consider that lower transaction charges will attract some more volume for us? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So there has not been any specific cut which we have seen. They had done some time ago. We had obviously, it was very scientifically driven the process. So based on that, we wanted to pass on the economies of scale to the market. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities So are the charges pretty similar as of now, or is there any kind of? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL We are lower. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. Okay. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL We are lower depending on which slab you are, but we have a lower slab for people who trade more on the CDSL. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay. Are there any other opportunities that you see from the recent announcements in terms of budgets, maybe in terms of land records and any other opportunity that you want us to know and what is exciting as a team in CDSL? Any other opportunity? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So there are things that all will depend on how that budget proposals will pan out into actual action, in what manner, what format, et cetera, it will go. That is wait and watch at this stage. It is difficult to predict at this stage. Anyway, we don't give any future. But even then, on a policy front, also it will be difficult to really predict because we'll have to wait and watch how that will pan out into actual actions. Amit Chandra Vice President, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities Okay, sir. Thank you. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Viraj Mithani from Jupiter Financials. Please go ahead. Viraj Mithani Owner, Jupiter Financial Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on outstanding numbers. Sir, my question is if you can give some color on insurance repository in terms of growth prospect for the whole industry and what kind of opportunity it could be for us? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Sure. I'll ask Latesh to answer. Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited Currently, we do not give any future growth prospect. As of now, IRDA is yet to make the repository services mandatory to the insurers. So we will wait for the decision from IRDA and accordingly. As of now, the status quo remains. And we are optimistic that IRDA will take decision on the drafts that come out in the next few months. Viraj Mithani Owner, Jupiter Financial But what will be the industry size for us? I understand you can't give a forward-looking guidance, but it isn't fair that the industry size and the rate of growth if the IRDA comes out with this particular. Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited Currently, all IRs put together are not even 10% of the overall yearly annual policies. The IRDA annual published numbers of CAS shows that it is just under 2 crores. Probably that can give you some information. Viraj Mithani Owner, Jupiter Financial It is just under your voice group, second. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL 2 crores. 2 crores. The number of policies under demat mode is just under 2 crores. These are as per the IRDA. Viraj Mithani Owner, Jupiter Financial Okay. Thank you. All the best, sir. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhaval Shah from Fort Capital. Please go ahead. Dhaval Shah Equity Research Analyst, Fort Capital Hello. Operator Yes, sir. You're on the line. Dhaval Shah Equity Research Analyst, Fort Capital Hello. Yes. Yeah. Sir, regarding that technology charges, I understand you cannot give a prediction, but at least can you tell us as a percentage of revenue, what should we expect? Because if I see it has been varying from 5.5%-6% to now almost 10% in the last quarter, can you guide us in terms of percentage of revenue? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So that will mean it will be difficult to predict a percentage in the future. But if you go by the past trend, we have been ranging in around that range, about 10%-12%. But I think the important thing is from an intent point of view. We would like to ensure that the platforms of CDSL have the best-in-class technology and whatever it takes for us to ensure that. And that has been viewed also very positively by the market participants, by more and more people wanting to trade. So I think it's like saying that like a road. You're building a road. Now, the quality of your road, if it is good, you're going to have more and more cars wanting to come on that road. Now, while building the road or maintaining the quality, you are not going to assess that if these many cars come, then only I will build a good quality road. My intent is to build a good quality road, and therefore the intent is to build a good quality road without having a cognizance of how many cars are going to come on it. Similarly, our intent is to build the world-class technology platforms and continue to ensure that. That has been viewed till now, fortunately, very positively by the market, that more and more people are wanting to come in and participate in CDSL. Dhaval Shah Equity Research Analyst, Fort Capital Absolutely. Sir, one more clarification that hello? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yes, sir. Dhaval Shah Equity Research Analyst, Fort Capital Yeah. So, sir, we are investing into hardware and software. So we are not capitalizing it because of a conservative approach or the accounting standard doesn't allow us to capitalize this cost? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL No, we do capitalize assets which can be capitalized as per the Ind AS. Of course, cannot be capitalized as to be another revenue expense. Again, everything is driven by the Indian Accounting Standards. Dhaval Shah Equity Research Analyst, Fort Capital Okay, sir. No problem. Thank you. Thank you very much and all the best. Operator Thank you. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Thank you. Operator The next question is from the line of Bhargav, from Asian Markets Securities. Please go ahead. Bhargav Sangi Analyst, Asian Markets Securities Sir, my question is on the IPO and corporate action charges. It shows growth by 170% year-over-year. Usually, Q1 has been the weakest quarter for this segment. I just want to know what led to this significant growth in the segment. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL I'll ask the demat account. Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited The growth in IPO corporate action charges is largely related to the IPO that comes in the market. So higher number of IPO, higher number of revenue will be generated from this revenue stream. Bhargav Sangi Analyst, Asian Markets Securities May I know the split between IPO and the corporate action in this segment? Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited We are not maintaining that kind of split. A lot of it is in one head of income. Bhargav Sangi Analyst, Asian Markets Securities Or if you can just give me a ballpark number, I guess IPO charges will be much lower when compared to the corporate action charges, right? Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited Sorry? Bhargav Sangi Analyst, Asian Markets Securities The revenue which is coming from the IPOs, which I am guessing that will be much lower when we compare it with the corporate action charges revenue, right? Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited As I said, we do not internally track that kind of parameters between IPO and corporate action. For us, it is one head of revenue because everything comes under the corporate action group, whether it's IPO or a corporate action. Bhargav Sangi Analyst, Asian Markets Securities The reason why I'm asking is because if you see on sequential basis, the revenue is stable. But if you see the history, Q1 will be the, I mean, one of the weakest quarters over the year. So that's what I'm trying to understand. Latesh Shetty Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Insurance Repository Limited It's totally market dynamics. The larger number of IPOs will have this kind of revenue. It's not only IPOs, also a number of corporate actions. Again, that is driven by how much consolidation is happening, how much corporate actions other companies are wanting to do. So it is completely driven by the market dynamics. Bhargav Sangi Analyst, Asian Markets Securities Okay, sir. That's it for me. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parimal Mithani from Credential Investments. Please go ahead. Parimal Mithani Analyst, Credential Investments Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you. I just wanted to know your update about the Account Aggregator. What is the status and where are we in that? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So we have been mandated to be a Financial Information Provider, which we have been there for the last many quarters. In fact, we are one of the first in the securities market ecosystem to become an FIP, and we continue. Parimal Mithani Analyst, Credential Investments Sir, can you quantify the benefit for in terms of the market size and how you're going to benefit from this? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL I'm sorry, your voice is not clear. Parimal Mithani Analyst, Credential Investments Can you hear me now, sir? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah. Parimal Mithani Analyst, Credential Investments Can you how would we benefit out in terms of going ahead and the market size being the first mover advantage? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Market size is difficult to predict at this stage because how many people, as many people come to know this kind of want to access that information by giving a consent to a financial information user to reuse the information and data in the format which the investor wants it. That will be difficult to predict at this stage how that is. It's all on basically the inception at this stage. It's in the preliminary stages of the entire system. We'll have to wait and watch over the next few quarters how it really pans out. Parimal Mithani Analyst, Credential Investments Okay. Thank you. Operator Thank you. The next question is from the line of Niraj from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, sir, and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Just a couple of questions. I wanted to understand that has there been any discussion if we will be revising any other charges since we are going to revise the charges based on true-to-label? Because for a long time, I think we were supposed to have some revision in the annual issue charges as well. I know that you can't comment if there has been if we are going to or not going to, but I just wanted to know if there has been any discussion on that. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL So the true-to-label is what is under consideration at this stage. And obviously, we'll have to wait and watch as to how the market reacts to it. But that's a continuous process of review and with the issuer charges as well as the transaction charges. And as and when the scale grows, our intent is to encourage more and more people to join the securities market. And to the extent, whatever role we can play that. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital I think there's some disturbance. So I was not able to hear you, sir. Could you please come again? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL No, the point I was trying to make was that maybe the. Operator Sorry to interrupt you, sir. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah. Operator Can you come nearer to the mic and speak, please? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah, I am. You can hear me now? Operator No, sir. There's a disturbance from your end, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the management connection. Stay connected while we reconnect them. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management connection back on call. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah. So you can hear me now? Operator Yes. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital Yes, sir. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Yeah. So the point is that the economies of scale is something which will be assessed, and our intent is to get more and more people to join the securities market. And therefore, to the extent we can extend it over a periodic basis, it is going to be a continuous assessment. Also, the cost of the platform, including technology, employees, et cetera, would be taken into consideration for any upward or downward revision which is required. So on one hand, you have the economies of scale. On the other hand, you have the costs to maintaining the platform on a good basis. It's a kind of a culmination of this, which will lead to how much the charges should go down or go up. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital Okay. So the cost that we bear will also be considered as a factor in the charges? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Absolutely. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital Perfect. Perfect. And just my final question that since our last discussion and since the last phone call, has there been any other discussions on the T+0, T+ instance settlements with the government? Just wanted to understand the progress on that front. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL T+0 has already been implemented on an optional basis. It continues to remain on an optional basis. There have been continuous feedback from the market on what can be improved upon. But that's a continuous process. Once there is a significant time which goes and SEBI feels is a need to move to very instantaneous, they will think about that. As of now, T+0 and T+1 are both working. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital T+0 is with all the depository participants or only selected? Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL No. See, from a depository participant, there are a few brokers which have done on basically a beta phase. So they can transact on those particularly a few stocks and few brokers. And obviously, SEBI is kind of continuously assessing this. But from a depository standpoint, we have to make it available if any kind of investor within those brokers want to opt for it. So from our standpoint, depository standpoint, both the systems are on. Miraj Shah Equity Research Analyst, Arihant Capital Perfect. Understood. Okay. Thank you so much, sir, and all the best for the future. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Thank you. Operator Thank you. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Thank you so much. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Nehal Vora for closing comments. Nehal Vora Managing Director and CEO, CDSL Sir, I wish everybody all the very best, and thank you so much for your questions. Thank you for all your compliments. It actually means a lot for us as a management team. Thank you. Operator On behalf of HDFC. Powered by