Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Aavas Financiers Limited Q1 FY2025 Earnings Conference Call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
As a reminder, all participant line will be in the 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 the star then zero on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference may be recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rakesh Shinde, Head of Investor Relations at Aavas Financiers Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. I extend a very warm welcome to all participants. Thank you for participating in the earnings call to discuss the performance of our company for quarter one, FY 2025. The results and the presentation are available on the stock exchanges as well as on our company website, and I hope everyone had a chance to look at it.
`With me today, I have the entire management team of Aavas, including Mr. Sachinder Bhinder, MD and CEO; Mr. Ghanshyam Rawat, President and CFO; Mr. Ashutosh Atre, President and CRO; Selvin Uthaman, Chief Business Officer; Surendra Sihag, Chief Collections Officer; Ripudaman Bandral, Chief Credit Officer; Jijy Oommen, Chief Technology Officer; Anshul Bhargava, Chief People Officer; Rajaram Balasubramanian, Chief of Strategy and Analytics.
We will start this call with opening remarks by our MD, Sachinder Bhinder, CFO, Ghanshyam Rawat, and CRO, Ashutosh Atre, followed by Q&A session. With this introduction, I hand over the call to Sachinder. Over to you, Sachinder.
Thank you, Rakesh, and good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to our Q1 FY2025 earnings call, and thank you for joining the call in the evening. Let me now take you through the key highlights of our performance in Q1 FY2025. We are delighted to report a robust growth of 22% YoY in AUM, reaching INR 1.78 billion.
Along with this strong growth, we have ensured best-in-class asset quality, with 1+ DPD at 3.65%, an improvement of 3 bps YoY, and a GNPA of 1.01%. Our net profit for quarter 1 FY2025 stands at INR 1.26 billion, registering a growth of 15% YoY. In terms of business updates, in Q1 FY2025, we disbursed INR 12.11 billion, delivering a growth of 13% YoY.
At the end of Q1 FY 2025, our AUM stood at INR 178.41 billion, up by 22%, which aligns with our target to grow our AUM by 20% to 25%. The robust 25% year-on-year growth in the sanction serves as a clear indicator of our robust trajectory, which ensures confidence to deliver sustainable growth in the disbursements for the entire FY 2025.
We have opened four new branches during quarter one, FY 2025, in our existing states to deepen our reach. We have seen a strong uptick in the logins, led by diversified omni-channel lead generation funnel, including digital, e-Mitra, RRO, and Mitra, resulting in better disbursement and building a healthy business pipeline.
In terms of technology update, I'm happy to share that we have completed the milestone of adoption and stabilization of Salesforce with 1.9 lakh+ loan applications processed through Salesforce. Additionally, we have stabilized Oracle Fusion, our ERP application. Our new lead management system built in Salesforce has successfully gone live with selected branches in pilot form. Our loan management system in Oracle Flexcube is at an advanced stage of testing and will go live in the coming quarter.
Technology is playing a key role in transformation and turnaround time improvement. Our login to sanction turnaround time has improved to 8 days in quarter one, FY 2025. In terms of financial performance for the quarter, our net profit grew by 15% YoY, led by growth both in interest income and non-interest income.
Our consistent efforts to optimize costs have resulted in a remarkable improvement in OpEx to asset ratios by 52 basis points, which is now at 3.27 in Q1 FY2025, from the previous year's quarter at 3.79. Our asset quality continues to be pristine, with 1+ DPD at 3.65% as of June 2024, down by 3 basis points over Q1 FY2024. Our GNPAs stood at 1.01% in Q1 FY2025, and credit costs remain at 20 basis points.
In terms of liability, we are one of the best well-diversified liability franchises. We have always been innovative in exploring new avenues of sourcing, and opti. I am happy to share that we have started exploring co-lending.
Our incremental borrowing costs increased by 30 basis points year-over-year and 17 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 8.31, indicating the cost of borrowing peaking out in line with the benchmark rates. The FY 2025 Union Budget marks a transformative leap in addressing India's housing needs by significantly expanding the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to include 30 million additional houses, the government of India's commitment to providing housing for all.
We are committed to a strong growth and our focus on innovation, technology, and cost optimization will continue to drive our success, and I'm confident with our dedicated team and strategic initiatives, we will achieve our goals and deliver value to our stakeholders. I will now hand over to our CFO, Ghanshyam Rawat, to discuss the financials in detail.
Thank you, Sachinji. Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome to our earnings call. First, to update on the borrowing. In terms of borrowing, we continue to borrow judiciously and raising around INR 11.335 billion at 8.31% in quarter 1, 2025. Total outstanding borrowing as of June 30, 2024, stood at INR 115.8 billion.
Overall borrowing mix as of June 30, 2024, is 47.8% from term loan from the bank, 24% from assignment and securitization, 19.6% from NHB refinancing, and 8.6% from debt capital market. During the quarter, overall cost of borrowing increased by 1 basis point, quarter-over-quarter, to 8.08%. Our incremental cost of borrowing for quarter 1, FY 2025, was 8.31%.
Lender support continued to remain extremely strong. There is excess of diversified and cost-effective long-term financing. We maintain a strong relationship with the development financing institutions. To meet long-term business growth, we have progressed on co-lending tie-up with the PSU banks. As of June 30, 2024, we maintain sufficient liquidity in the form of cash and cash equivalent and unavailed credit limit of INR 17.5 billion, and documented unavailed sanction of INR 12.6 billion.
In terms of spread, as of June 30, 2024, the average borrowing cost of 8.08% against an average portfolio yield of 13.08%, resulted in spread of 5%. We have been able to maintain our spread around 5%, in line with our guidance, despite competitive pricing pressures.
Our margin NIM as a percentage of total assets during Q1 FY2025 stood at 7.31%. Our NIM in absolute terms has increased by 10% year-on-year, Q1 FY2025. In terms of cost, our OpEx to asset ratios improved 52 basis points to 3.27% in Q1 FY2025, versus 3.78% in Q1 of FY2024. We are committed to gradually bring down the OpEx ratio around 3%. Credit cost during the quarter stood at 20 basis points in Q1 FY2025, versus 16 basis points in Q1 FY2024 and Q4 FY2024. In terms of other parameters, profit after tax during the quarter increased by 16% year-on-year to INR 12.61 billion.
ROE stood at 3.01% and ROE 13.14% in Q1 FY2025. IGAAP to Ind AS reconciliation has been explained in detail for profit after tax and net worth on slide number 30 and 32 of our presentation. We are very well capitalized with a net worth of INR 39.03 billion and CAR at 14.48%. Total number of live accounts issued at 223,600, translating into 16% year-on-year. Employee count was 5,904 as of end June 2024, versus 5,730 as of June 30, 2023. Now, I would like to hand over the line to our CRO, Ashutosh Atre, to discuss our asset quality.
Thank you, Ghanshyamji. Good evening, everyone. I am pleased to share the key portfolio risk parameters with you. Asset quality and provisioning. Our asset quality, as mentioned by Sachinderji, continues to show improvement. The one-day past due metric improved by three basis points to 3.65% in Q1 FY 2025, compared to 3.68 in Q1 FY 2024.
As of thirtieth of June 2024, our gross stage three stood at 1.01% and net stage three at 0.72%. In terms of geography, one plus DPD and GNPA in our core vintage states remained well below 4% and 1.1% respectively. Whereas, up-and-emerging states, one plus DPD and GNPA remained well below 3.5% and 0.9%, respectively.
Similarly, in terms of ticket size of more than INR 15 lakh, 1+ DPD and GNPA remained well below 3.3% and 0.8%. Whereas, in case of ticket sizes less than INR 15 lakh, 1+ DPD and GNPA remained below 4% and 1.25%, respectively. Our total ECL provisioning, including set-off for COVID-19 impact, as well as Resolution Framework 2.0, stood at INR 907.5 million as of thirtieth of June, 2024. Aavas is strongly positioned to continue delivering industry-leading asset quality. With this, I open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
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 Shreepal Doshi from Equirus. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. So my first question was on business momentum, and particularly on disbursements. So the run rate has come off materially from the Q4 levels. And within housing, the degrowth is even higher. While I understand that one, two tends to be soft, but what is it, you know, that led to this lower disbursements during the quarter?
Thanks, Shreepal. As you really appreciated, you highlighted, you always have a muted quarter one. But here I would like to highlight on against robust, sanction growth of twenty-five percentage, we had sanction to disbursement around 78 percentage, which led to the growth being muted on the lower side, actually. But as, as really pointed out, on a 25 percentage sanction growth, we expect the momentum to come back in the coming quarters.
So, sir, for if we have to look at it from a different angle on a yearly basis, what sort of a disbursement that we are, you know, targeting? And how do you see shaping up over the quarters?
I think, as I said, that the one, one parameter on which is that the sanction growth is there on the clients, and I said that we are at around 77% on this quarter. In the coming quarters, we'll have the sanction to disbursement ratio really covering up to the normal levels of 85% to 87%. That's the normal range which we made.
So we are confident of bouncing back on the quarter numbers. So what gives us this confidence is, one is the login growth and second is the sanction growth. These are the two parameters which really help us give that confidence of there. So unlike a normal one, we have a sanction group which is already available with us, actually, and that will translate in the coming quarters.
So, are you saying that there was no, I mean, material momentum decline in terms of the number of logins during the quarter?
No. As you reflect, as I highlighted, there is a growth in login and there is a growth in sanction, and both of them, we've given the numbers out, so there's no momentum growth, if I were to really talk across. There's a decrease in the sanction to disbursement ratio, which has resulted into the disbursement take on the little muted side.
Okay. So the second part was pertaining to the end use of the other mortgage category that we have classified this quarter. So what would be the end user and yeah.
So other mortgage, if you really, really look at it, it is the MSME side of the part, which is the micro MSME, where it is typically the underserved, underserved which we really focus on as a specialized SSP, which is very unique to our USP, on which really helps in building the capital creation for the working capital customers in the micro MSME size. And you've seen the degrowth on the LAP and the top-up side, and really it's gone into the capital consumption on the MSME side, and that's around on an AUM, I think around 22%.
Okay, so the end use is for the MSME- micro MSME purpose?
Absolutely, yeah. So the micro MSME, right, Shripal, if I to get it...
No, I was talking about the other mortgages, so,
These are typically the loan against property and the top-up loans, which are home loans, which we have the top-up loans, which get classified as, the loan against property, and the loan against property, which is for the non-personal consumption. These are all backed by self-occupied residential properties.
Okay. Okay. So the last question was on pricing. So we had, we had done rate hike couple of quarters back. So, I think the, s o why has there not been any improvement on the, on the yield side during the quarter, which, so that was the question, sir.
Yeah. So I think if you see the disbursement yield, there is an improvement on the disbursement yield on quarter on quarter and compared to the previous quarter. But on the overall yield side, I think you've seen not that kind of compression, which was normally there in the earlier times. So I'm maintaining a consistent spread of about 5%.
Okay. Got it, sir. I, I'll come in the queue if I have more questions. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Shreepal.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Mr. Renish Bhuva, ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir.
Good evening, Renish.
Yeah, good evening, sir. Sir, congrats on a good set of numbers during extremely challenging environment. So just two questions from my side. One on the spread in the NIM side again. So when we look at the incremental cost of foreign debt around 8.3 versus blended cost of 8.07, you know, which essentially means that going ahead the blended cost will converge towards the incremental cost. And when we look at the yield, you know, it's trending downtrending since last many quarters. So how confident we are about sort of maintaining this 5% spread for the full year?
I mean, though, you know, we know that we increased our PLR by 40 basis points, I think in April, but that doesn't reflect in this quarter. Maybe it should reflect in coming quarters, but what is, what is your internal assessment, sir?
So we, I'll have the two, there were two parts of the question. The second part, I'll have Ghanshyam to respond. On the first part, it's, we've been giving a guidance. Our endeavor is to maintain 5%, and as you will really appreciate that, there has been a spike in the incremental cost of borrowing, and the same transmission has not been possible at the ground.
So as a result of which, you do not see the incremental increase in the cost of borrowing being able to pass on to the existing set of disbursement customers. And on the yield side, on the placement, I'll ask Ghanshyam to really respond on the second part. Thank you, Sachin-ji.
This quarter, when we borrow fund, NHB contribution is always remain lower than what we borrow for full year basis. So, this year, new limit will come, once we complete this quarter. Then the contribution of NHB borrowing will increase in overall borrowing. So we are confident that now cost of borrowing is almost peaking out now at this level, basically.
And we borrowed a good amount of money as NHB-linked, repo-linked money. So whenever the rate cuts come, it will have a positive impact on our overall cost of borrowing, basically. And inside, if you see last quarter to this quarter, we have almost 17 to 18 basis points, the higher yield on the new business we got in this quarter. So we are quite hopeful.
We are going more incremental, more smaller ticket, going forward, in our business strategy. So I hope that that will also help to maintain our overall yield level, basically, or new disbursement will have further increase in yield, basically. So our endeavor is that, to maintain this 5% spread going forward.
Got it. And, my last question is, sir, again, you know, on the disbursement side. So when we say our sanction to disbursement remains at 77 versus 85 to 87 normally, so which means the disbursement is lower by maybe 7% to 10% this quarter, because of seasonality. Is that the fair assumption?
One is the seasonality, and second is the recognition of the disbursement, as you are aware. I think both of—Oh, yeah the parts have led to the current, but the positive side in the green shoot is that you have the momentum which is there, which is reflected in the numbers.
Got it. Got it. And, would you like to share the absolute disbursement, expectation for this year?
So we, we've always guided on our AUM growth of 20% to 25%. I think we are confident of the fact that we will be able to deliver in that range, and I think that will come across by two parts. One is, disbursement coming across, quarter on quarter, and plus the, the foreclosures being controlled at the rate at what we have been able to manage.
I think both of them really contribute. So we are confident on this side of delivering the growth on the yield, which we always guided on 20% to 25%, with disbursements contributing and the DPO being restricted to at a level at which we are comfortable at.
Got it. And then just last bookending question on what is the interest reversal because of the RBI circular?
I think, Renish, usually, I'll we can discuss offline on this. Whatever is there on the RBI stipulation, we followed completely what what is required as per the guideline, what has been mandated. So we will follow the rules and the circular in total.
Okay, so it is fair to assume that by end of June, we are fully compliant and going, and there should not be any. So we, so we are compliant on that, Renish. What we are saying is, on the coming quarters, we'll have a bounce back of our disbursement coming into play.
Got it. Got it. Okay. That's it, sir. Thank you, and best of luck, sir.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participants. The next question is from the line of Shweta from Elara Capital. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. So sorry, I'm harping on the same question all over again. We had seen 25 basis points PLR increase in Q4, right? But if I look at the yield movement, I mean, there might be one-offs in Q1, but when do you see this reflecting ahead on the yield front?
The 25% is yield. Can you explain this question again, please?
So we had seen 25 basis points of PLR increase in Q4, right? So why is it not reflecting in the yield movement?
If you see, last quarter, we published at 13.13%, and we increased 75 basis points in the March itself, basically. So in a contractual rate, a 75 basis point drop is on account of fresh business, because fresh business is still lesser than the AUM yield, basically. So there is a ... I don't think there's any contraction in reported, in our investor deck. Yeah, at a computed level-
Yeah.
If you ask me at a computed level, yeah, obviously, yeah, at a computed level, you see, obviously, due to RBI circular, there is a certain interest cost reversal, and, and some, this March to June end, NP also increased, so that 90-day period also that interest got reversal. If you both the factors there, then there is a only marginal drop, which is equivalent to my AUM will drop.
Okay, fair point, sir. So secondly, how are we placed today on the BT out cases, you know? Has that number seen sort of spike? Because if I go by the calculations on your prepayment and repayment, could you just throw some light on BT out for this quarter?
Yeah. If you see in this quarter, overall BT in the industry is 5.6% at annualized basis, which is within our control and which is within our last year's track record also basically. We generally assume in our budget 6% is a BT out to industry. And during the quarter and, if a customer close his, partly close account, they pay the EMI also. So overall, my reduction in the AUM is a, it is 16%. So which is within as per the budget and per our, within our judgment, the past year track record also.
Okay, so there is no unusual spike here, right, on the BT out?
No, no, no unusual spike here. Last year, if you see overall, this 16%-17.6% was a repayment from opening AUM to closing AUM.
Right.
We still are at a 16% in this quarter.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you, and best of luck.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Raghav Garg, Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hey, hi. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Just my first question, what is the total number of employees that you had as of June end? And a related question is, why have the employee expenses declined on a YoY basis? Those are my first two questions.
On the employee count, as of June 30, there were 5,904 employees, and, compared to the previous year, it is increased about 204. There is a one-time setoff, which is the long-term incentive plan and the ESOP, of course, which has got reversed, result of which there is an employee cost reduction.
Understood. Sir, my second question is from the annual report for FY 2024. So what I see is that there is a certain purchase of software worth about INR 29 crore, which has been capitalized. When I look at the intangibles under development line item also, there is about INR 22 to INR 23 crore worth of expenses waiting to be capitalized, I think, next year again, related to you know, software.
So, you know, can you tell us what is the nature of this, of this expense? And it doesn't seem to be a one-time, you know, capital expenditure, because it happened last year, it happened in FY 2024, and probably you're going to capitalize it again in next year. So, if you can, you know, explain what is the nature of these, of this expense, and if this is going to be a recurring expense, then why not, you know, expense it rather than capitalizing it?
No, no. I think in last few years, in the quarterly call and annual call, we explained that Aavas has took a complete tech transformations in the company. First, we took a Salesforce as a LOS, as a tech transformation, then we took ERP, Oracle Fusion as a tech transformation. As well as during this time, we took lot of digital initiatives also to have a very, let's say, different level of customer experience onboarding to, exit of a customer. And now, in this quarter, we are under progress to go live on, Oracle Flexcube, is a LMS system, basically.
All three, four systems, and apart from that, there are three peripheral systems are there, like, we took a treasury software also, along with the we had upgraded our PeopleSoft as a human software also, basically. So all put together is a total CapEx in the company, roughly in 2 years, something we already capitalized, something will be capitalized, put together everything is INR 45 crore around capitalization, basically.
INR 45 crore to INR 50 crore capitalization, all this put together, basically. So there is no any revenue expenditure getting capitalized. Capitalization is a revenue expenditure, is purely capitalized expenditure. The company will get benefit in the next 10 years, in the entire those years it will benefit to us, basically.
Understood. So ideally, maybe, you know, in a couple of years or maybe after next year, this capitalization, whatever this amount is, should run down, right? It won't continue at this 25, 30 crore kind of run rate beyond.
No, no.
Is that the right assumption?
This year is a final year capitalization. In this year, by this year end, two years put together, we will have a capitalization of INR 1,450 crore.
Understood. Sir, the reason why I asked is that, you know, given my limited understanding, I thought it was more of a subscription-based model. But given that, you know, this expense is going to run down after next year, maybe, you know, I'll try to understand it, offline, from you as to what exactly is the nature of this expense. Sir, my other question is from your annual report, it seems that the, NIG and NIG
Mr. Garg, may we request you to return to the-
Sure.
Question queue for follow-up questions?
Sure.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
The next question is from the line of Abhijit Tibrewal from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. So first things first, I mean, you spoke about disbursement yields earlier. What were the disbursement yields in Q1?. Sorry, Abhijit, you said disbursement, the dis- disbursement yields in monthly?
So I, because we've always guided on our, the spreads and on our AUM growth. The incremental dispersal deals which we don't comment because I think that trades off, moves across on quarter and quarter. I think important is that the, we've been able to maintain a spread of 5% on a, on a basis of that. On a sequentially, on a basis of Q1 previous year, I can really say that it is in the range of 15 to 17 basis points. So comparatively, of the previous it is higher by 13 basis points, actually.
Got it. This is fair, this is fair. Thank you. So the other question that I had was on spreads, or really a lot of questions have come your way on spreads, but given our guidance of 5% and now that we're eventually here, just trying to understand, given the competitive intensity which is not allowing you to transmit higher cost of borrowings to customers, right? Are we also doing something on the mix side to ensure that if, even if cost of borrowing stabilizes and the competitive intensity remains this way, which will mean continued pressure on yields, are we doing something about mix as well to see, to ensure that the spreads can at least be maintained at 5% kind of levels?
Yeah, Abhijit, you are right. I think the e ndeavor, as you rightly said, and I would really articulate in the form that the focus on the ticket size, which is going to be less than INR 15 lakh to contribute maybe higher. And even in the buckets which we are there, a incremental increase granularly on the yields or the disbursement yields is our endeavor.
And because of that, we will really see try to maintain our spreads. And when we see the peaking out of the cost of borrowings really peak out, we'll try to maintain, and our endeavor is there, and we're working on that.
As a result of which when we say that, we've been able to have our disbursement is up, so there is a, within the focus really is to work across on high-yielding, products which are there, which is within the segment which is there, which is, self-occupied residential properties, home loan segments. We'll be building, in those lines, actually. So that, that's been our focus, and we will continue to build on that.
Okay. And sir, just one last clarification. Just trying to understand, two things or two clarifications. One is, I mean, have we changed the way in which we report or compute, NIM? Because for the last financial year, FY 2024, we have reported a NIM of 7.91. For this quarter, you have reported a NIM of 7.31. So is there a change in the way we compute and report NIMs?
No. There is no change in the reporting at the NIM, basically. NIM is the same way we compute what we reported earlier and now reported. But in this quarter, NIM got impacted by the two reason. One is assignment income for this quarter is lesser than what we see for the full year basis, because first quarter generally we may meet your assignment.
But as we progress in the full year basis, it will be catch up on the assignment income. Then full year basis, we will have a back to that earlier. Secondly, obviously, cost of borrowing got increased. That is also impacted there. Secondly, as you mentioned, our spread got, let's say, came down, so that is also impacted at a NIM level, basically. But one-time impact of assignment will come back in the full-year basis.
Got it. But our presentation is actually showing a 70 basis points decline in the reported NIM.
Yeah.
Which is-
A few basis points, because spread also came down. So if we take that spread reduction, which is there, and then around 20 to 25 basis points is on account of EIS, on account of assignment, basically. So that will come back in the remaining year. And let me, I think there was a question on the spread and all these things.
We always say this thing, we will maintain this spread, but you will appreciate this thing, if we always give one more commentary, if we lose at a spread, so we will make up the same thing through OpEx leverage, basically. So this quarter is, or last is third quarter, now, OpEx leverage, we have around 50 basis points in this quarter.
Got it. Thank you so much, Ghanshyam-ji
Thank you.
Thanks, Abhijit.
Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your question to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Jigar Jani, B&K Securities. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. So on the OpEx front, we were guiding for 20 to 25 basis points, each year progression, but if I compare on a FY 2024 basis, we were at 3.58%. This quarter, we are already at 3.27%, so we are well below what we have guided for the full year. So how should we see the OpEx to asset number for the full year, FY 2025?
That's the first question. And secondly, the growth guidance that we are making, which is 22% to 25%, how much upside would be there because of the, CLSS pro- announcement in the budget? And if you could also, simultaneously share, in what format, if you have had any discussions. With NHB on this, and what format is the CLSS going to be coming? Yeah, thanks.
So we've always guided on the AUM growth of 20% to 25%. On the Opex to AUM ratio, we are at around 3.9% to 5% for the current quarter. Our endeavor is to continue to maintain, and some of them, I think, on the employee cost side, which was incidental in nature, which came across in this quarter, I think operationally we will try, and this has been a long-term guidance in the coming year, to come to a level of 3%. So we'll continue to strive towards that and maintain that slide.
And on the CLSS, I think Aavas as a normal strategy has never built the growth based on any of the subsidy schemes or other. We are into specific ones which are going to the self-construction individual homes. Definitely, that Housing for All PMAY Awas will have a positive impact for us, but nothing on the CLSS specific we have been guiding on those lines.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Shubhranshu Mishra, PhillipCapital. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. Just to confirm with you first, again, the impact of this in some degree of budget announcements about any fine print. As and how the fine print comes out, do you think that will change our AUM or disbursement growth guidance going forward?
That's the first. Second is, what really changes when we see this fine print of CLSS? Because, when CLSS got knocked off in 2022, and since then, the developers have pivoted towards other kind of inventory. So, for them to repivot back into affordable housing will take some time. So in that case, certifying a disbursement at scale with this scheme would also take time. That's a fair assessment.
Sorry, actually, you are not audible.
Am I audible now?
Yeah, now it's better.
Which part did we not hear, the first question or the second one? Should I repeat everything?
So on the first question, what we heard and what we hear, you're right, is that we continue to guide, have a guidance of AUM growth of 20 to 25%, for the coming quarters.
No, but, my question was, with the fine print of CLSS coming out in the next few weeks, will we change our AUM and disbursement growth? That is the first question. Second one was, in 2022, the CLSS got knocked off, and the developers are repivoted towards other kinds of format, which is not affordable housing, so there has been a supply side crunch. This supply side repivoting itself will take some time for the developer to realign to the fine print of CLSS. So, do you think that we'll, the certification of disbursements at scale will also take time, maybe 12 to 18 months?
I think from that perspective, we are not in the developer segment or in the segment of those builder-led supply, which is there. Our project-related focus in Tier 3 to Tier 5 town is more on self-construction individual homes, which is our mainstay. Whatever is in addition, it doesn't have. We are not predicting any growth because of any of the schemes really coming across.
The ones which are there on the urban-led supply, which is a part of our affordable vertical in our business, there, depending upon whatever the inventory comes up, that definitely do have an upside for us as a housing finance company. If I have understood that correctly, we won't change our AUM or disbursement growth guidance based on the scheme fine print, which comes out in the next few weeks.
What does it mean? What is it?
Because right now, today, we don't have the fine print of CLSS. Whenever that comes out, will we change our guidance? Fine print yet to come. In the last PMAY scheme on a CLSS facility, we've seen that it has positive impact on the growth on as well as on the quality side. It has improved significantly affordability of the home when people take a loan from us, basically. We want to wait for the fine print, but it actually has a very positive impact.
So the question is that will we change our growth guidance when that time comes?
So I think, let's wait for the fine print, and as what Shantanu said, it always has a positive impact, A, on the affordability, and B, on the quality of which is there. So once we get the fine print, I think we will come back to you on what would be the implications on the growth side.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Shah, Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Sorry if I'm being repetitive because I missed the earlier part. So on the non-home loan side, anything to read into in terms of the GS3 ? I don't know if that was answered, but there is an uptick both on a year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. So anything maybe, are we seeing a slightly higher threshold in one plus DPD or 30 plus DPD in that bucket? Yeah.
No, Kunal, there's nothing anything substantial to read across. I think you will really appreciate that as the MSME, which is the real working capital, going across on the non-home loan segment, really going for the capital consumption and really helping us in building the right kind of book. But incrementally, we don't see so, so much of a difference between the quality or the performance of the portfolio at this period of time. And the other thing you have to really note that this is all secured by self-occupied residential properties, which are there, so.
Okay. And secondly, on check disbursements, I'm not sure if that was touched upon, but, how much was the impact, and, has it normalized? And should we see the disbursements coming back to normal? If you look at the July month's disbursements, how the trend has been, yeah.
So Kunal, the earlier part of the call, we said that on the, we had a sanction growth of 25%, on the sanction part. On the sanction to disbursement, we were at around 77%. So we are optimistic of whatever we are there to bounce back in the coming quarters.
Okay, but that will come immediately. So, it has got normalized right from the start of this fiscal, this quarter.
It will get normalized, yes.
Okay. Okay, okay. Yeah, cool.
Thank you very much, Mr. Shah. The next question is from the line of Anurag Mantry from Oxbow. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just two housekeeping questions. If you can maybe quantify, you mentioned in the employee OpEx there was a one-time reversal, I think, if I heard correctly, because of the stocks, so if you can quantify that number. And the other one on the housekeeping again is in the yield rate, I think you mentioned that there is an interest cost reversal because of two reasons. If you can quantify both these numbers, it will be very useful.
Your question for the sequential quarter, for the or you're talking year on year?
So, so for the specific quarter, I'm just asking the absolute numbers. So I think in OpEx, you mentioned that there was a one-time reversal in the employee cost because of, I think, some reversal, if I heard correctly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a true sense, not a reversal, but it's that key because when a certain ESOP is given in the past got matured, basically. So now new provision was lesser than the last year requirement, basically. So that was a difference in the ESOP, basically. And apart from that, I think the normal when you compare quarter four to quarter one, obviously, disbursement remain higher in the quarter three, quarter four. So in those periods, variable costs are generally higher than the quarter one variable costs, basically, as an employee level.
Got it. Can you quantify that provision for ESOP number broadly, just to get a sense of how much, you know, improvement has happened because of that in the Op- employee OpEx?
So, cost in this quarter is INR 4 crore.
Got it. And, you know, the interest cost, so in the interest reversal, if you could quantify that as well.
I think that is difficult to comment because those system-based reversals happen in the system itself, basically. So we will come back and exact amount.
No worries. Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Mona Khetan from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. Two questions from my side. On the cost of borrowing, if I have to look at the bank borrowing, how have the incremental rates changed versus last quarter? You mentioned about the incremental borrowing, but how about bank?
Bank borrowing, I think from banks, we borrow money from the 2-3 benchmarks, basically. T-bill money, repo-linked money, and as well as other benchmark, six-month MCLR are all put together. So my bank money is borrowed in this quarter is 8.40.
Okay. And what was the same last quarter?
I think, there's 10 basis point difference is there.
Okay. Okay.
Last quarter, 10 basis point cheaper.
Yeah. Go ahead.
Hello?
Apologies for interruption. Ms. Khetan, we are unable to hear you.
Am I audible?
Yes, you're audible now. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sure. Secondly, sir, if I can get a share of loans above INR 25 lakh ticket size and 15 tickets as of today, and what was the number a year ago?
I think ticket size details are too valuable number to say at a large forum. We have given an overall ticket size detail in our presentations of how is our loan home equity has grown, home loan has grown. We have seen a natural increase in our ticket size at home around 6% to 8% in the home loan side. And MSME, like, put together, you see, we have seen a 10% plus increase in our ticket size at a year-on-year basis, basically.
Okay. If you could just get the above INR 25 lakh ticket size share in AUM, is that even a rough number you have, that will be very useful. Thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, that we can, I think, can take it. Because we don't have much focus on the larger ticket.
Okay. But do you have a back-of-the-envelope number, share of AUM above INR 25 lakh ticket size?
Yeah. It's around 5% to 6% on my count, on my loan count basis.
On units please.
Yeah, on accounts. And out of my, let's say, 200,000 plus customers, they are the 5% customers are there, who has more than INR 25 lakhs.
Okay. On based on the number of customers or AUM?
Yes, number of customers.
Got it. Okay, thank you.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Aditya Pal, MSA Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes, you're audible, sir.
Yeah.
Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. Just wanted to quickly understand what would be our geographical concentration among our top three states, and how does the management think about it?
So as you are aware, I think, we, we've already discussed Rajasthan, Gujarat, MP and Maharashtra, the four states which is there. So, the AUM accordingly is lined up. And as you really appreciated, the 367 to 371 branches, we have 108 branches in Rajasthan.
So based on that, it really is the one which is, giving the disbursement as well as the AUM leader. But the other thing to really note is that we had, the other states also really coming across. So from a level of 60 to 70% couple of years back, we are at around 30 to 35% on the AUM level. And since we have 108 branches, we have definitely a contribution coming from the, the, the base states. That's how we are stacked in the four states that we talked about.
Understood. So these four states currently contribute to 35% of the AUM?
No, I'm talking about Rajasthan alone contributes around 35% of the AUM.
Okay, understood. And, combined with the-
So I think you should really appreciate that I have 33, we have 33% of the branches, pan-India, which are there in Rajasthan, right? I have 108 branches of the total 371 branches in Rajasthan.
Understood. Sir, how are we looking at the... Sorry, sorry, please go ahead.
Yeah, you were asking about four states, top four states contribute 20% to 25%.
Sir, also my second question is that, how are we thinking on branch productivity? So today we have around INR 46 crore to 47 crore of AUM per branch. Going forward, how are we thinking? And also, if you can give a bit color on branch economics, that is, after completing 3 years, what is the g enerally, what is the OpEx?
I think on the granularity, we don't comment. I think you will really appreciate that the first ones which are there, which actually really help us to build, they help us to really scale up in the new markets. In the line of our contiguous location expansion strategy, it helps us to build up the other states and other branches. Our constant endeavor is to really build that in a way which is much more granular, make them cost-effective, and make them highly accretive.
Understood. Then, sir, any color on how, how do we think on product AUM per branch productivity going forward?
So, I think you look at the market potential, you look at the credit delivery, look at what is there. I think all those metrics is one which really decide what it is there. It is not a secluded division of a numerator denominator. It is more to do with our understanding of the geography in detail, local dynamics, our understanding of the market, and the credit behavior. That determines the viability, and accordingly, branches are sized according to the market opportunity and accordingly resourced.
Okay. So just understanding, so when we say 20% to 25% AUM growth, how can we understand how much will come from productivity gains and how much will come from organic?
you see, our AUM, 7, 20% to 25%, branch in count will increase by 10% in, let's say, it be a target in 3 years, as well as the manpower will increase by 11%. So this will give the productivity every year for 3 years. It's the metrics we are using.
All right. All right.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Nihar Shah from New Mark Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening to everyone. Just a few questions from my side. My first question is, you know, can you tell us what the BT out this quarter was? And, you know, what is the trend in BT in over there? You know, how are you seeing trends in BT out?
So we think, good evening, Nihar. On the line what Ghanshyam really referred in the earlier, while answering the earlier question, we continue to be at around 5% to 5.5%, and, I think that is backed up by, and on an annual basis.
And, this is actually backed up by, our good predictive model based on, last couple of years, where we have actually in a position to really predict what would be the customer behavior and, actually stop the right customers which are there. And wherever we feel that the customer is getting over-leveraged or the cash flows are not justifying, we let it, flow, to the balance for a balance transfer. And we really look at the ones which the, the customer has been over-leveraged.
The performance of that in the, with the other, with outside of us, actually is five times worse off than it would have been other. So I think a very fact of cash flow-based lending, right kind of underwriting and retaining the right kind of customers has actually helped Aavas over a period of time. And with technology and our predictive models really helping across to predict the behavior and hold the customer despite the competitive pressures and the market, we've been able to maintain that in a range-bound manner.
But is the number of people coming for BT outs also increasing? So, you know, you all are obviously retaining... Are you all retaining more customers, or is the retention rate also sort of largely similar? I'm just trying to understand that from more of a competitive intensity perspective.
No, no, no, no, no. No, as you know, we are more focused in Tier 3, Tier 4, Tier 5, and we are not seeing any change in large, let's say, couple of quarters, including this quarter, any increase in the on the BT out requests.
Okay, fair enough. The second question that I had was, you know, this loan sanction to disbursement ratio. You know, is there any drivers of that being so low this quarter that was, you know, just out of the ordinary? Or, you know, or is there some normal seasonality or something? You know, if you can just dive a little bit deeper into, you know, why you think that that corrected so sharply?
You are aware, key in this quarter, when a regulatory circular was there, and where some disbursement practices got improved in this quarter. So that has impacted us, still on certain sanctions, but what could not disburse, basically. So those is will be getting converting in the coming years, basically, coming months. Apart from that, I think there's not much to read on that ratio.
Okay, so it's largely because of the RBI circular that,
Yes. Yes, yes. Certain good amount got. We got a sanction, 25% growth, but disbursement it didn't happen because certain formalities customer yet to be complete, as per the revised disbursement to be treated.
Got it. Got it. Is this the same thing that impacted the NIM? You know, you mentioned that there was some RBI circular on the NIM impact, and, you know, if there's a way you can quantify that potentially.
I think NIM has naturally seen certain compression in my yield has also impacted. Major component is also my assignment income is lower in this quarter, and provisioning is a natural increase we have seen, basically. So, so, so that, and that entire something's compression at the NIM level or spread level got majorly, I think, majorly helped us to bring down at a, at a OpEx saving, basically, in this way. So ROA impact is very minimum, is a 15 basis point, which will be impacted that positively in the coming quarters, once we will have a, a better, assignment income in the coming quarters.
Got it. Great, Ghanshyamji. Great, you know, all the best on the quarters forward.
Thank you. Thanks, Nihar.
Thank you so much, Mr. Shah. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, that was the last question. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Sachinder Bhinder, MD and CEO of Aavas Financiers Limited, for closing comments. Please go ahead, sir.
Thanks. Thanks. As we conclude today's earnings call, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each one of you for your participation and engagement. The dedication of our team, the trust of our shareholders, the loyalty of our customers have been instrumental in our growth. In our Aavas 3.0 journey, we are dedicated to constructing a robust framework that supports our ambitious growth and ensures corporate governance, asset quality, sustainability and resilience.
I express my deepest gratitude to all our regulators and stakeholders whose constant faith and support have been helpful in the journey. Together, we shall forge a new era in affordable housing and MSME finance, empowering countless lives and reshaping India's socio-economic landscape. Thank you, and have a wonderful financial year ahead.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Aavas Financiers Limited, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.