Poonawalla Fincorp Ltd — Q4 FY26

Poonawalla Fincorp Ltd Q4 FY2025-26 Earnings Conference Call https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8GTZ3VTHtY Published: 8 days ago

0:01 1 second Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Punaala Finot Limited Q4 FY2526 earnings conference call. 0:10 10 seconds We have with us today on the call Mr. 0:12 12 seconds Arvin Kapil, managing director and chief executive officer, Mr. Sunil Samani, Executive Director, 0:21 21 seconds Mr. Sriram Ayaz, Chief Credit and analytics officer. Mr. Hush Kumar, head 0:27 27 seconds artificial intelligence and CHRO and other senior management officials. 0:34 34 seconds As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listenonly mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. 0:44 44 seconds Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. 0:55 55 seconds I now hand the conference over to Shabnam Zaman, company secretary of Punavala Finor Limited. Thank you and over to you. 1:05 1 minute, 5 seconds Thank you. In line with good corporate governance practices, please note this presentation may contain forward-looking 1:12 1 minute, 12 seconds statements regarding the company's future business prospects, strategies, estimate, and profitability. But it is 1:20 1 minute, 20 seconds important to note that these statements are based on certain expectations, assumptions, anticipated developments and are subject to various risk and 1:28 1 minute, 28 seconds uncertaintities. The actual results may differ significantly from what is stated in these forward-looking statements. 1:36 1 minute, 36 seconds Risk and uncertaintities related to these statements include fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, 1:43 1 minute, 43 seconds competition, economic conditions in India and abroad, changes in laws, rules and regulations relating to any aspect 1:51 1 minute, 51 seconds of the company's business operations, general economic, market and business conditions, attracting and retaining 1:58 1 minute, 58 seconds skilled professionals as well as government policies and actions. Now I would like to hand over to Mr. Ardin 2:05 2 minutes, 5 seconds Kapil, managing director and CEO of the company. 2:10 2 minutes, 10 seconds Thank you Shabdan. A very good evening to everyone and thank you for joining us. 2:15 2 minutes, 15 seconds I'm pleased to report that quarter 4 financial year 26 marks a significant inflection point for our organization. 2:24 2 minutes, 24 seconds Our strategic focus on scaling our six new business lines while maintaining rigorous cost discipline is now yielding tangible results. 2:35 2 minutes, 35 seconds We have successfully expanded our return on assets, a clear indicator of our improved earning power and quality of our portfolio. 2:45 2 minutes, 45 seconds This performance is underpined by a meaningful shift in our efficiency profile. We've driven 2:51 2 minutes, 51 seconds operating leverage effectively bringing down opics to AM ratio down to just a year ago. 2:58 2 minutes, 58 seconds Our results demonstrate that our deliberate investments in technology and our specialized branch 3:05 3 minutes, 5 seconds network are not just growing the top line but are structurally enhancing our profitability. 3:13 3 minutes, 13 seconds I will begin by outlining our financial performance for the quarter and year and subsequently talk about the key drivers underpining them. 3:22 3 minutes, 22 seconds We closed the year in EUM of around 60,348 crores this year. This reflects a yearon-year rose growth of 69%. 3:35 3 minutes, 35 seconds The contribution to AUM from the customer businesses has 3:41 3 minutes, 41 seconds substantially increased. Six new businesses are responsible for it. we've launched and we're contributing close to 3:49 3 minutes, 49 seconds 24% dispersement in this quarter versus 20 last quarter. 3:56 3 minutes, 56 seconds We've successfully operationalized 400 gold branches. The commitment we had made has been met 4:04 4 minutes, 4 seconds at this junction juncture. Let me cover and reflect over six vectors of our 4:11 4 minutes, 11 seconds performance which are an outcome of the nature and granularity of our growth. 4:18 4 minutes, 18 seconds Our NIM has expanded sequentially by 43 basis point from an 8.62% in quarter 3 4:27 4 minutes, 27 seconds to 9.05 in quarter 4. In our quarter 1 financial year 264, we had guided that 4:34 4 minutes, 34 seconds we will reduce we will restore sorry 9% NIM levels in three to four quarters. 4:41 4 minutes, 41 seconds Happy to report back that we've achieved the same in three quarters. 4:46 4 minutes, 46 seconds A significant contributor to the NIM going forward is our dispersement yield in my opinion which has already gone up by 40 basis point. 4:58 4 minutes, 58 seconds It is a milestone that underscores the successful integration of our new product verticals and digital businesses. We plan to continue to 5:08 5 minutes, 8 seconds optimize this by prioritizing segments with best riskreward dynamics. 5:15 5 minutes, 15 seconds There has been a quarteronquarter decline in credit cost of 2.62% to 2.51%. 5:24 5 minutes, 24 seconds This improvement is further validated by our six month outcome 6 MO 30 plus which continues to further trend positively. 5:36 5 minutes, 36 seconds Our GMPA for quarter 4 stands at 1.44% versus 1.51%. 5:44 5 minutes, 44 seconds Credit cost declining trend is in line with the structural strength of our calibration and collections. 5:52 5 minutes, 52 seconds it has started to play out as an advantage and let's remember that GNPA is a 6:00 6 minutes lead indicator of where the credit cost is heading for. OPEX to AUM has declined 6:08 6 minutes, 8 seconds from 4.76% in quarter 4 last year to 4.13 this quarter on the back of productivity gains in our new 6:16 6 minutes, 16 seconds businesses. We believe that this is a structural shift in the opex levels that 6:23 6 minutes, 23 seconds will sustain and further reduce over time. I will explain this aspect in detail shortly. 6:30 6 minutes, 30 seconds The culmination of these moving parts is a 70% sequential growth in PAT reaching 255 crores for the quarter. 6:41 6 minutes, 41 seconds And you can see the profits are moving in a certain directory. The credit cost is moving in a certain tra trajectory and our opex to AUM is structurally moving to a lower flow. 6:55 6 minutes, 55 seconds Our ROA has moved to a 1.81% this quarter versus 1.2 last quarter. 7:04 7 minutes, 4 seconds And if I compare it with the quarter ending March 25, it's a difference. It was around 78. 7:11 7 minutes, 11 seconds We believe it is the strongest evidence of our structural operating leverage. 7:17 7 minutes, 17 seconds We've crossed in my limited view a threshold of our investments in tech elections and new business lines and 7:26 7 minutes, 26 seconds since slowly steadily gradually compounding the 1.81% 81% is the new baseline I 7:33 7 minutes, 33 seconds believe and we should in my limited view grow strength to strength in couple of quarters 7:40 7 minutes, 40 seconds among all our six vectors in my limited view I would treat as a northstar metrics 7:51 7 minutes, 51 seconds let me now spend some time talking about the structural drivers underping this growth I quickly give you a sense there 7:59 7 minutes, 59 seconds firstly I want to talk about a product mix and distribution. We like to think of our product portfolio as a multi-speed growth engine. A consumer 8:09 8 minutes, 9 seconds products like personal loan consumer durables. 8:13 8 minutes, 13 seconds I would like to call them a high velocity engines that introduce consumers and households to our franchise. 8:19 8 minutes, 19 seconds If you look at education, loan and gold provide the right balance of yield and resilience. While our MSME and pre-owned cars are calibrated business for us that 8:27 8 minutes, 27 seconds enable us to participate in the broad story of the country. Let me briefly talk about a new products portfolio. 8:35 8 minutes, 35 seconds Prime personal loans. PL Prime we introduced in August 24 continues to demonstrate strong momentum. 8:43 8 minutes, 43 seconds We ended March 26 with a monthly dispersement, a run rate of approximately 468 rows. 8:53 8 minutes, 53 seconds We continue to see that 70% plus customers have bureau scores of 750 plus employed with category A corporates 9:01 9 minutes, 1 second earning 75,000 plus net take-home. In short, credit resilient salary profiles. 9:09 9 minutes, 9 seconds In quarter four, 33% of dispersements were processed through a fully straight through digital processing. 9:16 9 minutes, 16 seconds This has increased from 28% in quarter 3. We're very very excited about the digital calibration 9:23 9 minutes, 23 seconds and the momentum it's bringing and the cost efficiencies and operating leverage. We will move towards 35 to 40% 9:31 9 minutes, 31 seconds over the next few quarters adding strength to our operating leakage. 9:37 9 minutes, 37 seconds EL prime has transitioned from a linear cost model to a scaling digitally 9:44 9 minutes, 44 seconds where we build a year without a corresponding increase of the overhead. 9:48 9 minutes, 48 seconds That's just to give you a ballpark sense on the digital contribution incrementing. 9:54 9 minutes, 54 seconds A quick sense on the goal loans, our goal loan footprint as well as portfolio size being scaled 10:01 10 minutes, 1 second up. We've stayed on course with our earlier commitment on opening 400 branches as of March. 10:08 10 minutes, 8 seconds They've been operationalized. Total dispersement in codif is close to 819 crores. A fairly needs to step up. 10:20 10 minutes, 20 seconds More than 90% of the branches are tier 2 tier three locations. 10:24 10 minutes, 24 seconds East storefronts and custom frontier expect is expected to deliver strong lifetime value to our franchise. We will 10:32 10 minutes, 32 seconds aim to open branches on along similar lines as last year. While opening dedicated gold branches creates a 10:40 10 minutes, 40 seconds front-end investment phase, the long-term unit economics are very favorable to sustained profits. These branches act as localized profit engines 10:50 10 minutes, 50 seconds and once at scale require minimal incremental cost to maintain. 10:56 10 minutes, 56 seconds A quick sense on the consumer durable business. Consumer durable business for us continues to scale efficiently having 11:03 11 minutes, 3 seconds onboarded 12,500 plus retail outlets across 240 locations. We've set up a plan to onboard around 12,000 outlets at 11:12 11 minutes, 12 seconds the beginning of the year which we've surpassed. 11:15 11 minutes, 15 seconds Seamless digital journey has enabled the business to disperse over 54,000 cases in a single month. Conceptually, we view 11:22 11 minutes, 22 seconds durables as the anchor product of the emerging middle class homes. 11:28 11 minutes, 28 seconds It creates a virtuous cycle. Wider penetration leads to richer behavior data for us which fuels smarter 11:35 11 minutes, 35 seconds underwriting. Based on these beliefs, we aim to at least double the consumer durable 11:44 11 minutes, 44 seconds uh customer count over financial year 27. Basically strengthening our overall customer acquisition for the company 11:54 11 minutes, 54 seconds commercial I think a strong belief in last mile logistic and intra push in the country with consistently scaling up the 12:01 12 minutes, 1 second business metrics. Average monthly dispersal is approximately now 125 crores in quarter four grown by around 12:08 12 minutes, 8 seconds 18% quarter to quarter. Uh dispersment yield has also grown by 40% in quarter compared to three. We have 12:23 12 minutes, 23 seconds concluded financial year 26 with a,000 crores of dispersements. UCV continues to be the primary focus comprising of 12:32 12 minutes, 32 seconds 70% of the quarterly and annual dispersements. 12:35 12 minutes, 35 seconds Education loans are one year since our launch. We built a strong momentum processing over 22,000 trials. As of 12:43 12 minutes, 43 seconds March 26, education has crossed approximately 900 crores in dispersals. 12:49 12 minutes, 49 seconds Driven by a distribution network now of around 500 plus consultants and strategic partners firmly aligned with 12:56 12 minutes, 56 seconds our original vision. We have also seen a healthy traction in the instant sanction process which now contributes to nearly 20% of total sanctions. 13:09 13 minutes, 9 seconds Secondly, I want to touch upon a risk calibration and collection performance in my perspective which will be covered by at length. 13:19 13 minutes, 19 seconds A quick snapshot of this area is as I said our credit course declined further to approximately 2.51% improving sequency from 2.62. 13:29 13 minutes, 29 seconds The six MO 30 plus book delinquency decline by 30 basis points to a new low reinforcing the underlying strength of 13:37 13 minutes, 37 seconds our portfolio. Incrementally monthly cohorts across products are showing healthier delinquency ro rates than the 13:45 13 minutes, 45 seconds previous months. To give you a flavor, the 12 remov 90 plus of cohorts originated post September 27 24 sorry 13:54 13 minutes, 54 seconds has seen improvements of over 50% compared to the cohorts originated 12 months prior to September 24. 14:03 14 minutes, 3 seconds This performance is primary on the back of our fine-tuned grad models. We are able to continuously monitor refine the performance of our models and syn 14:10 14 minutes, 10 seconds signals received from payments data of collections visit and fueling back to the credit guys. 14:18 14 minutes, 18 seconds Similarly, a collection capability continue to be sharpened via a near realtime digital feedback loops and AI 14:25 14 minutes, 25 seconds models and treatment strategies. We in a position to dynamically update our models in a matter of days versus weeks 14:32 14 minutes, 32 seconds reflecting agility in our treatment strategies. 14:41 14 minutes, 41 seconds Third fundamental point. Let me explain a point around structural efficiencies and operating leverage. 14:50 14 minutes, 50 seconds Our operating expense to AM ratios declined from 4.76 to 4.13 year on year. 14:58 14 minutes, 58 seconds A few drivers of this to give you a sense. First bulk of our planned investments in new products, physical infrastructure, technology, human 15:06 15 minutes, 6 seconds capital we've made over the past few quarters are now a source of operating unit due to productivity gains. Our 15:13 15 minutes, 13 seconds digital capabilities across the company and website customer journeys have matured and are leading to improvements 15:20 15 minutes, 20 seconds significantly in productivity, cost of acquisition and organic business boost and optimized digital performance 15:27 15 minutes, 27 seconds funnels. Even on our website for that matter, we've seen a 47% improvement in keyword ranking, leading to a 51% 15:35 15 minutes, 35 seconds improvement in share of voice over the last financial year. 15:39 15 minutes, 39 seconds We continue to hold the performance levels across non-paid search with approx 7 billion traffic in March alone. 15:48 15 minutes, 48 seconds Our AI investments are also beginning to improve our productivities. We're now live with 42 15:55 15 minutes, 55 seconds of 76 AI projects planned which I will cover in detail. This quarter we've launched multiple initiatives that are 16:02 16 minutes, 2 seconds headed AI will talk about in detail shortly. 16:07 16 minutes, 7 seconds Important to note this when we look at opex to aum it's important to contextualize it within the current year strategic 16:16 16 minutes, 16 seconds investments because along with robust profits we're making investments as well to keep a sustained profits as a model which we're 16:24 16 minutes, 24 seconds trying to achieve. Our investments are building a more profitable mode for the future and we deliberately continuing to invest 16:33 16 minutes, 33 seconds behind a dual engine strategy. The first engine is focused on operational fortification, strengthening collections, upgrading 16:40 16 minutes, 40 seconds technology and improving core execution capability. The second engine is geared towards market expansion, franchise 16:47 16 minutes, 47 seconds deepening, including investments in new gold branches and consumer durable segments. 16:53 16 minutes, 53 seconds On the first front, technology, our investments are moving beyond digital towards building an AI intelligence layer. We're strengthening our backend 17:01 17 minutes, 1 second engines to enable a more predictive underwriting and sharper decisioning. 17:05 17 minutes, 5 seconds Importantly, we're leveraging AI to identify customers with highest propensity for subsequent borrowing thereby accelerating cross-ell and 17:13 17 minutes, 13 seconds material shortening conversion cycles on the collections infrastructure. We're consciously 17:22 17 minutes, 22 seconds decoupling collections into distinct strategic vectors. We investing in robust tech enabled collection system to ensure a rapid acquisition supported by strong and scalable recovery framework. 17:33 17 minutes, 33 seconds On the second front, we view consumer durable as a critical first touch point in the customer life cycle, enabling us 17:40 17 minutes, 40 seconds to build early relationships and drive long-term procel opportunities. 17:45 17 minutes, 45 seconds By pronouncing essential horses, we effectively earn a seat at the tables of thousands of new households, becoming 17:53 17 minutes, 53 seconds their first point of engagement in formal credit. This creates a high velocity acquisition funnel for us. We view this as a fundamental 18:02 18 minutes, 2 seconds investment, one that strengthens the long-term quality and depth of our franchise. Similarly on the golden branches in parallel act as a high 18:10 18 minutes, 10 seconds yielding kind of a safety wall for lack of another word if one may use the term while also providing strong risk buffer. 18:19 18 minutes, 19 seconds While we've set ourselves an internal benchmark to close the next financial year at a lower opex to AEM ratio than 18:27 18 minutes, 27 seconds our current levels. You may see fluctuations quarter on quarter for 10 to 25 basis points based on our 18:34 18 minutes, 34 seconds investment trajectory and clustering of a branch opening and this is a similar kind of guidance we gave last year as well. But I think the plan is that every 18:43 18 minutes, 43 seconds March end we should structurally move to another level and build the strength for the company on OPEX 2 getting lower. 18:53 18 minutes, 53 seconds In closing, let me summarize. Our trajectory remains focused on sustainable high quality 19:00 19 minutes growth. A steady improvement in our credit profile with credit cost moderating to 2.51 and even more encouraging trends of 6 MB 19:09 19 minutes, 9 seconds 30 plus data reflects the health of our lending ecosystem. 19:13 19 minutes, 13 seconds We're fairly looking confident on credit cost from here on with asset quality improving across stage one, two, and 19:21 19 minutes, 21 seconds three. We are operating from a position of strength if I can say that we've moved past the lifting of initial 19:29 19 minutes, 29 seconds business setup and now firmly in the phase of harvesting operating leverage. 19:33 19 minutes, 33 seconds We remain committed to our investment philosophy in the tech and collection to further fortify this momentum and 19:41 19 minutes, 41 seconds strengthen new businesses which are adding considerable value to our measurable metrics across business and risk. Thank you for your continu 19:49 19 minutes, 49 seconds continued confidence in our vision. We stand committed to a focused strategy of creating long-term predictable 19:56 19 minutes, 56 seconds sustainable profits. With that, I will now hand the call over to Shira. 20:03 20 minutes, 3 seconds Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. India's growth momentum during the financial year 2026 remain anchored 20:10 20 minutes, 10 seconds in domestic demand supported by consumption resilience and reinforced by policy measures for Punawa Fin. The 20:17 20 minutes, 17 seconds step-by-step execution of risk calibrated framework across origination, risk containment, and collections is 20:24 20 minutes, 24 seconds translating into a structurally stronger portfolio. This approach is delivering better incoming cohorts, lower embedded 20:32 20 minutes, 32 seconds volatility, and sustained improvements in collection efficiency over the cycle. 20:36 20 minutes, 36 seconds Focusing on the asset quality, let me give you a glimpse of our key trends. 20:41 20 minutes, 41 seconds The GNPA has shown a sequential improvement to 1.44% 44% in Q4 FI26 20:47 20 minutes, 47 seconds versus 1.84 in Q4 FI25 and our NNPA which was 0.85 in Q4 FI25 is down to 20:55 20 minutes, 55 seconds 0.74 in Q4 FI26. Over the last four quarters there has been a steady quarteron quarter improvement in stage 21:03 21 minutes, 3 seconds one, stage two and stage three composition of assets emphasizing our calibrated approach to portfolio expansion and strengthen debt management 21:11 21 minutes, 11 seconds practices. Our stage 1 composition in quarter 4 FI26 is at 97.5% 21:18 21 minutes, 18 seconds versus 96.3% in Q4 FI25. The stage 2 composition in Q4 FI26 is at 1.1% versus 1.85% in Q4 FI25. 21:31 21 minutes, 31 seconds On stage three composition in Q4 FI26 is at 1.44% versus 1.84% in Q4 FI25. There has been 21:40 21 minutes, 40 seconds significant improvement across all the stages, stage 1, 2, and three. The quarterly credit cost has improved to 21:47 21 minutes, 47 seconds 2.51 for Q4 FI26 versus 2.62 for Q3 FI26 21:53 21 minutes, 53 seconds versus 3.14 for quarter 4 FI25 last year. I would further like to highlight a few critical areas that reinforce our 22:02 22 minutes, 2 seconds commitment to delivering best-in-class credits in the industry. First and foremost is a credit by design framework. We are meticulously building 22:10 22 minutes, 10 seconds our portfolio skewed towards secured and unsecured project products that inherently have lower risk and low risk 22:18 22 minutes, 18 seconds cohorts like salvage profiles. Across products 6 MO 30 plus shows a downward trajectory compared to previous 22:25 22 minutes, 25 seconds quarters. Key strategic changes for SM products like business loans and pre-owned cars have supported improvement in 6 MOV 30 plus the early 22:34 22 minutes, 34 seconds monitoring indicator of 3 MOV 30 plus for consumer loans continue to improve quarter on quarter strengthening our 22:42 22 minutes, 42 seconds confidence our deliberate choices in product mix and disciplined risk calibration focuses on customer segments that have inherently lower risk and more 22:51 22 minutes, 51 seconds stable payment patterns risk management framework continues to be in alignment with banking standards as reflected in 22:58 22 minutes, 58 seconds our vertical frequency which benchmarks us favorably against peers sequential improvement in the six 30 plus for the 23:08 23 minutes, 8 seconds last four quarters is a testimony of this first framework implemented 6 MO 30 23:13 23 minutes, 13 seconds plus as of Q4 FI26 is 1.05 versus Q3 FI26 at 1.3%. The 12 MO 91 for COS 23:23 23 minutes, 23 seconds originated post September 24 has seen an improvement of over 50% compared to the CO originated 12 months prior to September 2024. 23:35 23 minutes, 35 seconds The company is undergoing a fundamental strategic pivot towards a future ready portfolio by gradually shifting its 23:42 23 minutes, 42 seconds asset mix towards higher velocity low probability of default segments such as loan against property personal loans to 23:50 23 minutes, 50 seconds salary profiles of top corporates gold loans and education loans to insulate the book from cyclical volatility. The 23:57 23 minutes, 57 seconds front- end asset selection is bolstered by a transition from traditional recovery to a predictive AIdriven collection engine which is creating 24:06 24 minutes, 6 seconds significant operational leverage and a continuous feedback loop with underwriting for realtime risk calibration by prioritizing quality at 24:15 24 minutes, 15 seconds risk approach at the ground level. The firm is successfully stabilizing credit cost at a new lower baseline to deliver 24:23 24 minutes, 23 seconds sustainable portfolio. It gives me confidence to share with you all that the seasoning of our portfolio is to our 24:30 24 minutes, 30 seconds satisfaction and we expect with fair confidence that from here on we'll move strength to strength on our portfolio 24:37 24 minutes, 37 seconds growth and quality. The second key strategic focus is on enhanced collection efficiency. Over the last 24:44 24 minutes, 44 seconds financial year, our investments on enhancing the tech stack used by collections and manpower in investments to be ready for scale across products and buckets have shown positive returns. 24:56 24 minutes, 56 seconds I would like to share a few performance stats that will give you a glimpse of the impact of this investments. Our current bucket flow has shown 25:04 25 minutes, 4 seconds quarteronquarter improvement and we have achieved a 2x improvement compared to the previous financial year. The above has led to sequential improvement in 25:13 25 minutes, 13 seconds stage one portfolio to 97.5 in Q4 FI26 versus 97.4% in Q3 FI26 versus 96.3 in 25:22 25 minutes, 22 seconds Q4 FI25 reflecting strong early stage collection and disciplined credit sourcing. There has been a 25:30 25 minutes, 30 seconds quarteronquarter improvement in slipage ratios since September 24th. 25:34 25 minutes, 34 seconds Sequentially, stage 1 slipage ratio has improved by over 15% in Q4 FI26 versus 25:41 25 minutes, 41 seconds Q3 FI26 and stage C slipage ratio has improved by over 11% in Q4 FI26 versus 25:49 25 minutes, 49 seconds Q3 FI26. Slippage ratios have improved due to a portfolio calibration and improved collection efficiency across 25:56 25 minutes, 56 seconds product categories. As we further prepare for scale, the team is focusing on Genai voicebot le calling with 26:03 26 minutes, 3 seconds intelligent human handoff, behavioral AI nudges, speech to text AI integration for allocation optimization and agentic 26:11 26 minutes, 11 seconds workflows to autot trigger events. Few of the other AI geni and automation use cases like multilingual voice bots for 26:19 26 minutes, 19 seconds digital communications based insights for collection manager humans allocation management campaign 26:26 26 minutes, 26 seconds strategy builder and call quality monitoring are supporting smarter day-to-day operations for continuous improvement cycle. 26:35 26 minutes, 35 seconds Third key focus area is on continuous enrichment of our in-house proprietary models used across the digital and 26:43 26 minutes, 43 seconds non-digital journeys. As we speak, 18% of the a is via digital journey driven by a IML models used across the 26:52 26 minutes, 52 seconds different thread similates. The multi-layer a IML risk models leverage the volume, velocity, variety and 27:00 27 minutes veracity of data to enable early risk detection, industry level risk representation and vintage level structuring. Usage of these risk models 27:09 27 minutes, 9 seconds also augment the physical underwriter decision process across diverse models. 27:14 27 minutes, 14 seconds Consumption use cases. We have started our journey with implementation of Gen two models for credit risk and Gen 3 model versions for debt management to 27:23 27 minutes, 23 seconds dynamically optimize calibration in response to shifts in portfolio mix. The credit AI for underwriter focuses on 27:30 27 minutes, 30 seconds productivity improvement enhancing accuracy and standardization. The Q4 FI26 marks implementation at scale for 27:38 27 minutes, 38 seconds credit AI projects across all major products covering personal loans, business loans, professional loans, pre-owned car loans, and equipment 27:46 27 minutes, 46 seconds loans. For example, in personal loans, the current installed capacity of a headcount as of March 26 will now be 27:53 27 minutes, 53 seconds able to process 1.2 two times the files methodically strengthening each stage of the credit life cycle from origination 28:02 28 minutes, 2 seconds discipline to on book risk management and collection. The organization is creating a sustainable improvement cycle 28:09 28 minutes, 9 seconds building a with better cohorts lower portfolio volatility and sustainable gains in collection efficiency. Thank 28:17 28 minutes, 17 seconds you so much and I'm handing over to Hash Kumar. Thank you Shan. Good evening everybody. 28:25 28 minutes, 25 seconds uh AI continues to be our core driver for the operating model for transformation that we have taken up like a key source of long-term 28:32 28 minutes, 32 seconds differentiation for punal of involvement. Before I take you through the specifics of this quarter, I want to set up three things that in our assessment define an inflection point in 28:41 28 minutes, 41 seconds our AI journey. First, the scale of AI usage across organization has crossed an important threshold. It is now meaningful to be measured across 28:49 28 minutes, 49 seconds multiple matrices. Second, several of our AI platform we have spoken about in early parts have moved to full production. They're now generating 28:58 28 minutes, 58 seconds measurable outcomes, not just productivity increase and I'll walk you through few of them. And third, our AI 29:04 29 minutes, 4 seconds architecture has begun a clear strategic shift. We are moving from point solution to agentic system. Here that AI that 29:12 29 minutes, 12 seconds does not merely assist user but reasons, executes, monitor, improves outcomes within governance. 29:18 29 minutes, 18 seconds Let me start with scale. Enterprisewide AI token consumption has increased more than 100 times year on year and now 29:25 29 minutes, 25 seconds stands approximately at 30 plus million tokens for month based on our current deployment pipelines usage strength. We 29:33 29 minutes, 33 seconds expect the number to grow multiffold over the next year and their deepens into workflows decision making across the organization. Additionally, we now 29:42 29 minutes, 42 seconds have 76 AI projects identified 42 deployed with 34 under development across business and functions. Each of 29:50 29 minutes, 50 seconds these projects may have multiple agents acting in concert. 29:55 29 minutes, 55 seconds We are introducing token consumption as a metric because in our assessment is the cleanest measure of how AI is actually being used inside the 30:03 30 minutes, 3 seconds organization. The infrastructure cost of running these tokens model inference compute cloud is in our assessment 30:10 30 minutes, 10 seconds materially small related to the scope scale of measured business saving or productivity gains that these platforms are now generating. The ratio of 30:19 30 minutes, 19 seconds measured business benefit to air infrastructure cost is decisively positive and we expect that ratio to expand as scale increases because 30:27 30 minutes, 27 seconds inference costs are largely fixed at the platform level while application across more more workflows is incrementing. 30:35 30 minutes, 35 seconds SI is one of the credit platform that uh that Sham has already elaborated on and thank you Sham for that. So I'll not 30:44 30 minutes, 44 seconds take you through that but we had also announced customer service part that I wanted to cover having gone live in FI26. I'm pleased to confirm that the 30:52 30 minutes, 52 seconds platform is now live in production. The platform's design capacity is to autonomously resolve 80 to 85% of customer interactions. That remains the 31:02 31 minutes, 2 seconds steady state target and we expect to reach that level over course of next two quarters. 31:07 31 minutes, 7 seconds Customer weight times have already reduced by approximately 35 to 40%. 31:13 31 minutes, 13 seconds This single platform when at design capacity will materally reduce our cost to serve while improving customer experience. 31:20 31 minutes, 20 seconds Beyond just credit and customer service, their internal productivity platforms have moved to full production at scale. 31:27 31 minutes, 27 seconds In this quarter, build and engineering co-pilot enabled our IT teams to deliver 16 product builds within single quarter 31:35 31 minutes, 35 seconds with major productivity uplift of 70 to 80% across development work. The more important benefit however is the 31:42 31 minutes, 42 seconds compression of release cycles which directly accelerates time to market for the new businesses we are scaling. We continue to maintain high levels of 31:50 31 minutes, 50 seconds governance and oversight to mitigate the risk of vulnerabilities or code breaks. 31:56 31 minutes, 56 seconds DJ our natural language insight engine is now active use across operation HR and salance. It is saving approximately 32:04 32 minutes, 4 seconds 400 man hours annually in analysis time that was previously spent on manual dashboard adapted reporting requests. We 32:11 32 minutes, 11 seconds expect adoption to expand significantly in coming quarter as we extend the platform into customer service and risk 32:18 32 minutes, 18 seconds by HR AI powered employee assistant is constantly growing and is now autonomously resolving close to 90% of 32:26 32 minutes, 26 seconds HR queries. Average resolution time has compressed from 24 hours to under 10 seconds. To give context to the 90% 32:34 32 minutes, 34 seconds employee interaction per month which vast majority would have previously required HR team intervention high volume operational task like cap 32:42 32 minutes, 42 seconds booking key employment letters are now executed with zero human aled hiring platform has compressed 32:49 32 minutes, 49 seconds offer release to now an average of under one minute and scale monthly hiring capacity now dependent on compute alone. 32:58 32 minutes, 58 seconds We have already pushed the system and as a result without increasing further compute improved on 68% increase in capacity with 81% reduction in hiring 33:06 33 minutes, 6 seconds related operational cost and importantly no compromise on candidate quality as we continue to expand our branch network 33:14 33 minutes, 14 seconds the new product teams this platform is what allows us to hire at scale without proportionate operational drag. In March 33:22 33 minutes, 22 seconds 2026, we launched an AI content factory, a design creative studio where prompt engineers, creative specialists work closely to create hyperpersonalized communication, creative and media. 33:33 33 minutes, 33 seconds Within a few weeks, we have witnessed a 12x increase in our communication output with significant cost saves. This will enable us to run multi-segment campaigns across media types across all adc. 33:46 33 minutes, 46 seconds This brings me to what I described as an important strategic shift uh of the quarter. Our move from point A solution to agent system. Just to explain a point 33:56 33 minutes, 56 seconds solution executes a single defined task for a person. An agent RPA which is what we have launched. Works across multiple 34:04 34 minutes, 4 seconds people context take sequence of action monitors those outcomes and actions. 34:11 34 minutes, 11 seconds ensures that system and agent built to work are governed within the boundaries itself. This is a shift that allows air 34:19 34 minutes, 19 seconds to scale beyond individual use case and become operating infrastructure. Not a tool but a substrate on which workflows 34:27 34 minutes, 27 seconds run. Similarly, we have launched autonomous API testing agents. This embeds agent intelligence into our 34:34 34 minutes, 34 seconds engineering life cycle. It independently generate test kits, validates API behavior, proactively identifies anomalies. This will improve release 34:43 34 minutes, 43 seconds quality, accelerate development cycles and reduce manual testing effort directly reinforcing the engineering productivity gains we are seeing from 34:50 34 minutes, 50 seconds build by DIY bot creation tool. This we launched uh primary as a no code platform that 34:59 34 minutes, 59 seconds allows business team to independently build deployed domain specific conversational agents for their teams. 35:05 35 minutes, 5 seconds It has already begun to drive bottomup innovation across enterprise improving query turnaround time and democratizing access to institutional knowledge. We 35:13 35 minutes, 13 seconds believe this will be one of the highest leverage platform over the coming year because it shifts AI from centrally built capability to one that 35:20 35 minutes, 20 seconds organization can extend organically on the agentic road map for FI 27. These three platforms are foundational. 35:28 35 minutes, 28 seconds They're not totality of our agentic strategy. Every one of these platform with multiple agents will operate within seven supra governance framework within our existing model risk discipline. 35:39 35 minutes, 39 seconds Alongside these foundational platforms, several focus AI solution have been deployed over this quarter to strengthen frontline execution, sales and decision 35:46 35 minutes, 46 seconds support. Over the next few quarters, we will deploy agentic AI across our funnels to improve relevance and guide customer appropriately through their 35:55 35 minutes, 55 seconds loan journeys. Three agents are in pipeline to be delivered in June to FI27 are expected to improve our digital loan conversion rate by over 15%. 36:06 36 minutes, 6 seconds Our data foundation across structured unstructured signals will be closely coupled with our journey on the cloud and this will significantly improve AI 36:13 36 minutes, 13 seconds experience delivery to our sales channel and customer while keeping a tight control on our cloud cost. For our sales 36:21 36 minutes, 21 seconds and credit legal technical team, we have launched multiple bot asset for education loans, BL for build, B real buddy for business loan and lab 36:29 36 minutes, 29 seconds assistant for loan against property. We standardize the interpretation of policies and process across front line 36:36 36 minutes, 36 seconds reducing operational risk in precisely the product that are scaling fastest. 36:41 36 minutes, 41 seconds For secretary and tax tax workflow, we have deployed secist and taxation work. 36:46 36 minutes, 46 seconds They reduce friction in the back office workflows that are critical to running regulated lender at scale. Speed, consistency and compliance has improved 36:54 36 minutes, 54 seconds measurably. And for leadership development scale, we launched lead forward an AI powered coaching assistant that provides our managers personalized 37:02 37 minutes, 2 seconds on demand guidance for feedback, people decision development plan. before I close because AI skills governance is what underwrites the credibility of 37:10 37 minutes, 10 seconds entire program. All our AI project incorporate inside the seven suta governance framework and of course we are further strengthening our a 37:19 37 minutes, 19 seconds governance pro governance processes which we have adopted earlier in alignment with the principle laid out by the regulator. 37:28 37 minutes, 28 seconds Every ATP deployment including three platforms that I described in previous section operate within explicitly defined boundaries scope of action 37:35 37 minutes, 35 seconds escalation trigger given the loop checkpoints or any decision that affects trade collection customer or stakeholder 37:42 37 minutes, 42 seconds open on model risk specifically a 50 plus AI model which has already spoken about support grade decisioning sitting 37:51 37 minutes, 51 seconds inside a model risk frame on data privacy and DPDP act. Our architecture is designed with explicit 37:58 37 minutes, 58 seconds data classification, consent management to data localization principles. 38:02 38 minutes, 2 seconds Sensitive customer data is handled within governed environment. We have control in place to manage exposure to external model provider and those 38:10 38 minutes, 10 seconds controls are removed by information security team on vendor concentration. 38:14 38 minutes, 14 seconds Our architecture is deliberately multimodal multimodel. We are not building dependency on any single large 38:22 38 minutes, 22 seconds language model provider. The agentic platform and DIY bot creation tool are designed inherently to be model agnostic 38:29 38 minutes, 29 seconds at the orchestration level. This protects us against enterprising changes, capability gaps and continuity risk. And on auditability, every agentic 38:38 38 minutes, 38 seconds action is locked and is reversible. To summarize the point, we treat government governance not as an overlay on AI but 38:46 38 minutes, 46 seconds as a precondition for thank you. I'll now hand over to Mr. Suni our executive director. 38:52 38 minutes, 52 seconds Thank you. Rush and good evening everyone. 38:56 38 minutes, 56 seconds Let me quickly take you all to the financial highlights for the quarter. 39:00 39 minutes The asset under management stood at 60,348 crores. 39:06 39 minutes, 6 seconds On the liability side, as part of our debt strategy and in line with our projected EU growth, we continue to 39:13 39 minutes, 13 seconds diversify our liability book focusing on long-term borrowings. Hence, the share of borrowing from long-term sources has 39:21 39 minutes, 21 seconds gone up by approximately 3% from 83.42% to 86.50% 39:28 39 minutes, 28 seconds quarter on quarter. This number was 61% in Q4 of FI25. 39:35 39 minutes, 35 seconds Our net interest income including the fees and other income continues to grow healthy standing at 1276 crores for Q4 39:46 39 minutes, 46 seconds of FI26 which is up 18.2% 2% quarteron quarter and 78.5% yearon year. On a fullear 39:54 39 minutes, 54 seconds basis for FI26, our NI including the fees and other income stood at 4,029 crores, which is a 40:03 40 minutes, 3 seconds growth of 49% yearonear from 2,78 crores last year. 40:11 40 minutes, 11 seconds The cost of borrowing for the quarter stood at 7.63% versus 7.65% 65% in Q3 of FI26. 40:21 40 minutes, 21 seconds The COPEX Q stood at 4.13% reduction of 28 bits quarter on quarter. 40:30 40 minutes, 30 seconds The previsioning operating profit during the quarter was at 695 crores, a 31.6% 40:38 40 minutes, 38 seconds increase quarteron quarter. For the full year of FI26, the PPOP is 1,934 40:47 40 minutes, 47 seconds crores, which is a growth of 36% from 1417 crores per year earlier. 40:56 40 minutes, 56 seconds The asset quality improved quarter on quarter with GNPA at 1.44% a reduction of seven bits quarter on 41:03 41 minutes, 3 seconds quarter and 40 bits year on year. and net NPA stood at 0.74% a reduction of six bits quarter on 41:12 41 minutes, 12 seconds quarter provisioning coverage ratio stood at 49%. 41:18 41 minutes, 18 seconds Our profit after tax stood at 255 crores during the quarter 69.6% 6% growth 41:25 41 minutes, 25 seconds quarter on quarter. This is despite company making significant investments in new businesses, branches, AI and technology. 41:35 41 minutes, 35 seconds For the full year of FY26, the profit after tax is 542 crores. 41:41 41 minutes, 41 seconds Our debt equity ratio stood at 4.67 times. This is before the capital raise of 2500 crores which we did in April of 41:50 41 minutes, 50 seconds 2026 through the QIP route post capital raise and basis March 26 balance sheet the 41:58 41 minutes, 58 seconds performer that equities would stand at 3.78 times on the capital adequacy ratio would 42:07 42 minutes, 7 seconds continue to remain healthy and competitively above the regulatory requirements at 16.83% 83% of which the tier one capital is at 15.90%. 42:18 42 minutes, 18 seconds With successful 2500 crores of capital raise the stimulated capital adequacy ratio stands at 20.74%. 42:29 42 minutes, 29 seconds This is basis the March 26 balance sheet and the capital raise that we talked about and this gives us enough headroom 42:37 42 minutes, 37 seconds for growth. A liquidity coverage ratio at 181% is comfortable. On the liquidity front, 42:46 42 minutes, 46 seconds a surplus liquidity of 7,590 crores stood at at the end of March 31st, 2026. 42:55 42 minutes, 55 seconds Thank you. And now I would like to open the floor for question and answer session. 43:01 43 minutes, 1 second 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 touchtone 43:10 43 minutes, 10 seconds telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while 43:18 43 minutes, 18 seconds asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question assembles. 43:27 43 minutes, 27 seconds Our first question comes from the line of Jan Sha from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. 43:33 43 minutes, 33 seconds Uh yeah. Uh thank you for the opportunity uh and congratulations on another strong quarter. Uh so sir uh 43:40 43 minutes, 40 seconds firstly on this e uh so yeah we have um started giving the disbburment yield range. Uh so also sir could you um help 43:49 43 minutes, 49 seconds me with the what would be our dise and what would be our book for the 43:57 43 minutes, 57 seconds quarter? is trying to understand the uh difference between the need and the future. 44:03 44 minutes, 3 seconds Oh yeah that's the first one and uh secondly on this um asset quality so yeah the asset quality has been 44:09 44 minutes, 9 seconds continuously improving uh but given the geopolitical situation uh do we envise any risk to that and particularly are we 44:18 44 minutes, 18 seconds looking to make or did we think of making any overlay or uh provisions uh just to strengthen our provisions in 44:28 44 minutes, 28 seconds terms of any risk if it emerges given that we are also almost 50% portfolio is unsecured. Uh so in that context, yeah. 44:37 44 minutes, 37 seconds Yeah. Thanks Jan. Uh I think let me address your second point first. I think on the credit side uh if you look at 44:46 44 minutes, 46 seconds Europe and Shirram but you know our exposure in my limited view remains well within the defined risk tolerance. We do 44:54 44 minutes, 54 seconds a lot of internally. We do a lot of uh worst case scenario stress test modeling across not just the portfolio but across 45:03 45 minutes, 3 seconds uh liabilities and a whole lot of dispersal yields. Which is why if you notice uh normally liability yields in 45:13 45 minutes, 13 seconds the industry changes fast and asset repricing power is very tough to get. 45:18 45 minutes, 18 seconds But in our case, if you notice the way we built the model structurally to make it stronger. Of course, we didn't know the world's going to come in, but we 45:26 45 minutes, 26 seconds wanted to fundamentally make it stronger. And with that intention, you start seeing that our dispersal yield in 45:33 45 minutes, 33 seconds quarter 4 is gone up by 40 basis points and your portfolio yield will gradually 45:40 45 minutes, 40 seconds do the catch up. But the more your dispersal yield goes, what does it show? 45:44 45 minutes, 44 seconds It shows that if you were approximately let's say 15 uh 56 uh was your dispersal yield a quarter 45:53 45 minutes, 53 seconds before approximately and if it goes to a 15.96 and next quarter it goes inching higher that means you have the pricing power in 46:02 46 minutes, 2 seconds a business which is not a very easy visible site across the industry across any company normally it's a strength of 46:09 46 minutes, 9 seconds the construct which it indicates in my limited view and I I think that's the way I would read it. Uh we see a lot of 46:19 46 minutes, 19 seconds promising increase in our dispersement yield leading to subsequently obviously the portfolio will catch up but we have a healthy pace of growth in this 46:27 46 minutes, 27 seconds financial year plan and as far as the calibration is concerned see the very fact we diversified across consumer 46:34 46 minutes, 34 seconds durable gold these are investments and if you look at PL prime the digital side is giving us the first right to refuse 46:41 46 minutes, 41 seconds despite our size. Look at loans against property. We've structurally do over 50 lakhs. We don't do microls. We we've 46:50 46 minutes, 50 seconds kept ourselves disciplined on the credit calibration. If you look at education loans, commercial loans, even if you look at business loans and uh pre-owned 46:59 46 minutes, 59 seconds cars, you'll be surprised unlike our overall growth rate looks very high. Uh there are products like business loan where we've asked the team to operate 47:09 47 minutes, 9 seconds right now on low teens to mid-level teams. 47:13 47 minutes, 13 seconds uh on that theme MSME but if you look at lab we're doing at a healthy robust growth because it's over 50 lakhs and if you look at pre-owned cars which is also 47:22 47 minutes, 22 seconds an industry relatively more riskier we've again said low teams so we've calibrated ourselves uh in investments 47:29 47 minutes, 29 seconds and balancing off the profits so that you can sustainably grow faster but would you like to add something on the war side which he's asking and impact 47:37 47 minutes, 37 seconds that you see yeah as said if you look at our assets In the management the focus is on the 47:44 47 minutes, 44 seconds lowrisk assets like uh loan against property personal loan against property we don't do less than 50 lakhs and we 47:51 47 minutes, 51 seconds see that the portfolio below 50 lakhs tend to be higher uh portfolio at risk and that that is a portion which we 47:59 47 minutes, 59 seconds don't do and we also focus on gold loans or exposure to is only to the top corporates employees where we give 48:07 48 minutes, 7 seconds personal loans uh education loans. So all of these assets in my view is that these are are very less vulnerable to 48:16 48 minutes, 16 seconds the hedge bins in the external environment. Uh I I I don't see any risk and even if you look at your GNPA 48:23 48 minutes, 23 seconds quarter and quarter has improved the slippage ratios have improved my 6 MO have significantly improved my even my 48:31 48 minutes, 31 seconds uh 90 plus 12 MOV if you see there has been a significant improvement of 50% over. So if you look at overall from a 48:38 48 minutes, 38 seconds portfolio point of view, I don't see any risk here. Hence these assets uh are less vulnerable to headaches in the 48:47 48 minutes, 47 seconds external employment and we are hence the management maintains a cautious optimism and continues to focus on monitoring and recalibrating our portfolio required. 48:57 48 minutes, 57 seconds Correct. So we are closely watching Sen. 49:00 49 minutes I mean it's not to say that uh war should be ignored. Without a doubt, we're closely watching the environment, but consciously 49:08 49 minutes, 8 seconds somehow we wanted to make a more moderate uh uh risk model. So our kind of vulnerability probably index is not 49:16 49 minutes, 16 seconds the right word. Our portfolio could be a little more uh crafted in a manner which it looks more solidity to it. But we're closely watching the environment. 49:29 49 minutes, 29 seconds Uh sure. Uh that is uh very detailed. Uh thank you for that. Uh and uh so sir just uh one last question if I could 49:37 49 minutes, 37 seconds squeeze in uh so uh yeah uh in terms of this um fix mo 30 plus which it has been 49:45 49 minutes, 45 seconds continuously on a declining mode and that is around 1.05%. 49:50 49 minutes, 50 seconds So what could be a steady state number here which we would be looking at probably at this level it could settle 49:56 49 minutes, 56 seconds down. Uh yeah yeah. So if you look at it's coming down 50:03 50 minutes, 3 seconds quarter on quarter as you see the numbers it could it would be range down a range but if you actually look at the 50:11 50 minutes, 11 seconds products such as gold loans uh personal loans prime all of these assets when they start having a larger share into 50:18 50 minutes, 18 seconds the overall these numbers will trend downwards. So that is something which I can tell you 50:26 50 minutes, 26 seconds but I think you must remember one thing like I said in the conversation which I was speaking GNPA normally in my limited 50:34 50 minutes, 34 seconds view and experience normally shows you the lead indicator of what's coming ahead so as your mix of gold will 50:41 50 minutes, 41 seconds increase you had for example barely I think I don't remember the exact number but let's say 900,000 cr book of gold but you have 400 branches so obviously 50:50 50 minutes, 50 seconds your March number would have been close to a substantial number and you can well imagine how the contribution of gold will go up. Now you know the industry 50:58 50 minutes, 58 seconds cost of gold. So with these are strategies we shared with you. Every word of what we said shared over the 51:05 51 minutes, 5 seconds last 23 months in my limited view has been executed precisely before or the 51:11 51 minutes, 11 seconds time and that credibility you can trust that we have normally keep adequate margin of safety when we talk and of 51:19 51 minutes, 19 seconds course we're moving steady and steady the credit cost and the portfolio the way we stand for multiple reasons gives 51:28 51 minutes, 28 seconds us fair confidence that the portfolio strengths should get stronger and stronger. from there. 51:35 51 minutes, 35 seconds Sure. This is very helpful. All the very best. Thank you. 51:41 51 minutes, 41 seconds Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star and one. 51:46 51 minutes, 46 seconds Our next question comes from the line of Kav from Anandrati. Please go ahead. 51:54 51 minutes, 54 seconds Good evening. Congratulations on a good good set of numbers, sir. Uh number one question is on the fee income trend that has been uh trending um very robustly. 52:06 52 minutes, 6 seconds So if do you have some guidance around that? That would be the first question. 52:12 52 minutes, 12 seconds Yeah, I think on the free income side uh uh we we all uh as a management team comes from we handle fairly large 52:21 52 minutes, 21 seconds businesses. So we understand the various vectors of the income whether it's your processing charges whether it's your uh 52:29 52 minutes, 29 seconds insurance businesses whether it's various cross-ell businesses or we plan to launch some new stuff. So I think you 52:36 52 minutes, 36 seconds you will see uh a fair amount of uh strength coming in this year as we've already done a lot of effort in 52:44 52 minutes, 44 seconds launching all our businesses. Things are stabilizing, distribution are stabilizing, it's becoming more a uh 52:51 52 minutes, 51 seconds regular calibrated growth from here on is sort of a massive amount of launches that I have went in. So a lot of focus 52:58 52 minutes, 58 seconds will go on to ROAs and I think all of us are well aware that a fee income is a very important component 53:06 53 minutes, 6 seconds uh of ROAS and ROA fundamentally for any company valuation professionally has to be given the due respect of being a 53:13 53 minutes, 13 seconds northstar that I mean I just used it to say that in our heads a lot of our decisions will be based our way because the company also will do uh robust 53:22 53 minutes, 22 seconds profits plus investments. So uh that's the way we believe sustained profits get created. You cannot lower investments 53:30 53 minutes, 30 seconds just to further boost profits because that's not the way sustained profits happen. But fe income between various 53:38 53 minutes, 38 seconds vectors uh is I'll be honest with you it's very strongly under our focus and 53:45 53 minutes, 45 seconds the entire team is working on it but there's no guidance we give on these things. Let me have something in the back of my pocket. 53:53 53 minutes, 53 seconds Giving you everything on the second question was uh we have always focused on technology and AI right? 54:06 54 minutes, 6 seconds Yes sir. Sorry we can't hear you. 54:09 54 minutes, 9 seconds Uh how how AI and tech has been progressing so far uh to the best of your knowledge where you are in that 54:15 54 minutes, 15 seconds journey. If you can spend you know two three minutes on that that would be grateful on what we can look forward to in the next couple of years 54:24 54 minutes, 24 seconds for us AI and digital let me put it as two vectors which could give you value 54:32 54 minutes, 32 seconds on the digital side if I if I share the figures with you we're well over 30% of 54:39 54 minutes, 39 seconds our entire business like a 480 kind of uh 500 kind of number that we're looking at Now imagine a 30% or 40% of that 54:48 54 minutes, 48 seconds gradually becomes fully digital of this scale in a personal prime corporate India taking from us uh can give you a 54:57 54 minutes, 57 seconds sense of uh the stuff we planning to this is something which we've executed this is not something which we are trying to execute but now how does the 55:05 55 minutes, 5 seconds scale over the next few years business loan uh is calibrating uh theme uh 55:13 55 minutes, 13 seconds ticket sizes And uh right now we are very very strict on its calibration. But within six uh 9 months once we are very 55:22 55 minutes, 22 seconds solid on that stuff we will come up with some interesting turnaround times on the digital side on the business loan as 55:29 55 minutes, 29 seconds well. We're looking at digitizing a lot of business even if it's halfway through the fun on the front side with the customer. We all come with distribution 55:38 55 minutes, 38 seconds background. So turnaround time for us is going to be key. So that's where the digital pass rest on AI. You have to appreciate that the idea of giving you 55:47 55 minutes, 47 seconds these 7576 projects is to give you a sense that we haven't launched two businesses or four businesses which only 55:55 55 minutes, 55 seconds did credit underwriting. Today for example to give you a sense of the output uh a single product like a 56:02 56 minutes, 2 seconds personal loan uh PL prime we not hiring new underwriters despite our growth rate means substantially robustness here. So 56:09 56 minutes, 9 seconds we've kind of frozen our manpower of last year and because of our ability with AI and the way our credit is 56:17 56 minutes, 17 seconds calibrated, we have successfully managed to uh grow the operating leverage there. 56:22 56 minutes, 22 seconds Similarly, one by one all product products will start seeing that value. 56:26 56 minutes, 26 seconds Uh you'll have to take a product at a time and start doing it. And if you look at across the organization, whether it's a small initiative or large, you'll find 56:34 56 minutes, 34 seconds me 76 bringing in a culture where whether it's a finance department doing automation, operations trying to do 56:43 56 minutes, 43 seconds automation plus AI or a department like business trying to figure out which parts of it can he use AI. There's a 56:51 56 minutes, 51 seconds cultural focus on the fact that we've got to create an operating leverage with both AI and digital. So it has to be uh 57:01 57 minutes, 1 second net impactful. I'm not into technologies which don't change my life yet. So for me every step that we take either 57:08 57 minutes, 8 seconds culturally builds the efficiency of innovation and there'll be some products which could far exceed the others on the impact but we very clear that we keep 57:17 57 minutes, 17 seconds moving forward in this all these projects I think should give you confidence that culturally we are extremely rich and agile as a company on these areas. Sure. 57:29 57 minutes, 29 seconds Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you. 57:33 57 minutes, 33 seconds Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Jay Betai with NBIE. Please go ahead. 57:40 57 minutes, 40 seconds Uh hello sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity sir. Uh and congratulation on the good set of numbers. So my 57:47 57 minutes, 47 seconds question pertains to AI uh AI and the return what we are generating. But I if 57:54 57 minutes, 54 seconds if you can share some some color that how uh how are we focusing on increasing 58:01 58 minutes, 1 second our roe going ahead. Uh firstly and second question is on disbbursement. Uh I would like to know the disbburment number for the full year itself. 58:14 58 minutes, 14 seconds All right. If we start with I think the most interesting one is the ROA. 58:20 58 minutes, 20 seconds I think we've taken a 1.81. I see if I look at the ns 58:28 58 minutes, 28 seconds in my limited assessment uh looking at the environment I think our ns in my assessment overall are looking 58:38 58 minutes, 38 seconds positive and accretive. Uh so I think that's a strength which gives me confidence that there's 58:45 58 minutes, 45 seconds we're very confident as I see through the future of the next few quarters. 58:50 58 minutes, 50 seconds right up to the four quarters of ROA should gradually start moving strength to strengths. We don't give any in 58:57 58 minutes, 57 seconds intermediary guidances u but like you can see we never gave a guidance of 1.81 one either but 59:05 59 minutes, 5 seconds step by step they're building on the businesses I keep balancing investments and profits but I see the ROS from here 59:13 59 minutes, 13 seconds on moving strength to strength for probably a couple of quarters or probably couple of years and uh I think we've reached that point that our 59:21 59 minutes, 21 seconds strength is emanating out of our pricing p if you see our dispersement uh pricing uh 40 basis point you're well 59:29 59 minutes, 29 seconds aware uh is not easy to increase on the N side on the dispersal deal side and with the growth rate that we have 59:38 59 minutes, 38 seconds probably this year's dispersal will be one/ird of our book. I think that will also give substantial strength to the 59:44 59 minutes, 44 seconds NIS adding to the ROS. We are also fairly positive despite our investments with minor fluctuations in quarter 59:51 59 minutes, 51 seconds quarter as you cluster the branches. But I think structurally on the opex to a year we should reach we are hoping to 59:58 59 minutes, 58 seconds reach a lower level by March end despite the fact that OPEX is actually substantially improved than even we had 1:00:06 1 hour, 6 seconds anticipated to be honest and it's uh the productivity are kicking in and stabilizing. giving us the confidence 1:00:13 1 hour, 13 seconds credit cost also one of the vectors which adds to the ROA is looking from here on looking fairly robust both by 1:00:21 1 hour, 21 seconds design and by calibration and I must mention by collections we're making substantial investments in collections 1:00:28 1 hour, 28 seconds both in terms of focus and technology for us to see the results jam to merge has seen a substantial strength on the 1:00:36 1 hour, 36 seconds collections and we hoping to uh keep it robust Uh but that's I think one part of it 1:00:46 1 hour, 46 seconds you'd asked uh number for the full year. 1:00:50 1 hour, 50 seconds I think we we've given a a guidance of AUM of 35 to 40. Uh we we could be probably a notch better but it depends. 1:01:00 1 hour, 1 minute We'll watch closely how this environment uh plans out but directionally I think we would like to look at a 35 to 40 and 1:01:09 1 hour, 1 minute, 9 seconds commence rate dispersments along with it and that's the balance that we'd like to keep. Uh there's something else. 1:01:20 1 hour, 1 minute, 20 seconds Oh okay. Uh thank yeah sir thank you so much for the detailed answer. So just one more thing 1:01:28 1 hour, 1 minute, 28 seconds if we see on slide 22 we for uh for a longerterm horizon we have some negative 1:01:35 1 hour, 1 minute, 35 seconds ALM. So, so if we if we factor in the amount raised of 2500 crores, so do we 1:01:43 1 hour, 1 minute, 43 seconds see uh how do we see that gap uh bridging out it gets bridged as in the capital race it has got bridge. 1:01:52 1 hour, 1 minute, 52 seconds Okay sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much and best of luck. 1:01:58 1 hour, 1 minute, 58 seconds Thank you. That was our last question ladies and gentlemen on behalf of Punawala Corp Limited. That concludes our conference. Thank you all for joining us.