Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Aavas Financiers Limited Q1 FY 2024 earnings conference call. This conference call contains forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and representations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and difficulties intrinsic. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, so there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal our operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this call is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Sachinder Bhinder, Managing Director and CEO of Aavas Financiers Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yes, thanks. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for participating in the earnings call to discuss the performance of our company for Q1 FY 2024. The results and the presentation are available on the stock exchanges as well as on our company website, and I hope everyone has had a chance to look at it. With me, I have Ghanshyam Rawat, President and CFO; Ashutosh Atre, President and CRO; Siddharth Srivastava, Chief Business Officer; Surendra Sihag, Chief Collection Officer; Vipin Sangari, Ripudaman Bandral, Chief Credit Officer; Jijy Oommen, Chief Technology Officer; Anshul Bhargava, Chief People Officer; Rajaram Balasubramaniam, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Analytics ; and Ghanshyam Gupta, Investor Relations and SGA, our IR Advisors.
In Q1 FY2024, we registered AUM growth of 23.2% at INR 146,500 million and a PAT growth of 23% at INR 1,097.1 million, which dispersed INR 10,682 million in the quarter. A quick update on the technology transformation project. We went with a pan-India SFDC LOS rollout in April 2023. It took, it took some time for the system to stabilize and people to adapt to the new technology, which led to an overall soft disbursement in Q1 FY2023. However, the system was fully stable by May and we did hypercare in June. In fact, June 2023, month-on-month disbursements saw a growth of about 17%, further emphasizing the strong good tailwinds driving the demand in our customer segment. In Q1 FY2024, the new LOS system handles 33,000 files seamlessly.
We continue to be excited to see how this will help us unlock productivity and delivering customer delight through quicker decisioning and disbursement. We're ready for the next step of our technology transformation with elements and ERP systems, which will go live by Q4 of this financial year. We continue to invest for the medium and long term in both people and technology. The operating expenses for this period was slightly elevated as we had increment headcount increase and ESOP costs in the period in addition to the tech costs. I would now hand over the line to Ghanshyam Rawat, President and CFO, to discuss the financial in detail. Over to you.
Thank you, Sachinder. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to our earnings call. While we continue to borrow judiciously, we raised around INR 13,826 million at 8.01% during the Q1 FY 2024. As on June 30, 2023, an average cost of borrowing on total borrowing is 7.6% against an average portfolio yield of 13.26%, resulting in a spread of 5.60. As on June 30, 2023, total number of live accounts is at 192,446, translating into 31% year-on-year growth. Total number of branches was 348, with two new branches being added in last three months. Employee count was at 5,700.
Assets under management grew by 23.2% year-over-year to INR 146,500 as on June 30, 2023. Product- wise break up, home loan, 69.8%; other mortgage loan, 30.2%. Occupation- wise break up, salaried, 40.2%; self-employed, 59.8%. IGAAP to Ind-AS reconciliation has been explained in detail for profit after tax and network on slide number 31 and 33 of the presentation. On the borrowing side, there is access to diversified and cost-effective longer-term financing. There is strong relationship with the relevant financial institutions. Total outstanding borrowing as on June 30 is at INR 133,816 million.
Overall borrowing mix of June 30, 2023, is 46.6% from term loan, 13.9% from assignment and securitization, 21.3% on NHB refinancing, and 11.2% from working capital margin. Support continued to remain extremely strong as Aavas would continuously. Liquidity of INR 31,827 million as on June 30, 2023. Cash and cash equivalent of INR 20,147 million. Unavailed CC limit of INR 1,100 million. Documented unavailed from National Housing Bank other banks is INR 10,500 million increased by 33% year-on-year to INR 1,097.1 million for Q1 FY24. ROA on 3.16%. ROE was 13.8% for Q1 FY24. As on three June 2023, we are well capitalized with net worth of INR 33,887 million, and capital adequacy ratio at 47%. Our book value per share improved at INR 428.5. Now, I would like to hand over the line to Ashutosh, the President and CRO, to discuss recent calling numbers.
Thank you, Ghanshyam. The portfolio risk parameters, asset quality and provisioning. Non-performing Assets stood at 3.68% in Q1 of FY 2024, as against 4.67% at Q1 of FY 2023. Gross Stage 3 stood at 1%, and Net Stage 3 stood at 0.73% as on 30th of June, 2023. Gross Stage 3 of 1% includes 0.13% of up to 90 DPD assets, which have been categorized as GNPA, following RBI's notification dated 12th of November, 2021. The FY 2022 re- resolution plan was implemented for certain borrower accounts as per RBI Resolution Framework 2.0, dated 5th of May, 2021.
Basis to perceive the risks and as a matter, matter of prudence, some such accounts with an outstanding amount of INR 843.8 million as on 30th of June, 2023, have been classified as Stage 2 and provided for as per the regulatory guidelines. Out of INR 843. million, INR 639.9 million is within 0-30 bucket, 0-30 DPD bucket. Total ECL provisioning, including that for COVID-19 impact, as well as Resolution Framework 2.0, stood at INR 765.6 million as of 30th of June, 2023. Aavas is well-placed to continue its industry-leading asset quality. With this, I open the floor for Q&A session.
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 the touchtone 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 questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press Star and One. The first question is from the line of Abhijit Tibrewal from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hi, Abhijit on the line.
Yeah. Good afternoon, Abhijit.
Yeah, hi. sir, just two questions, more from clarification perspective, though you highlighted that during the quarter, Aavas went for a pan-India Salesforce rollout, which led to slow disbursements in the first quarter. You also highlighted that the system got stabilized somewhere around May. I just want to understand, while this would have impacted on disbursements, your sanction should have been in line with your expectations. If you could just share the sanction pipeline, what was the growth in the sanctions? Given that the disbursements were good and more just disbursed, can we expect some of that in terms of pent-up demand or pent-up sanctions, which were there to of higher disbursement trend in quarters to come?
Also, I mean, while things normalized from June onwards, can you share the disbursement runrate in June and July?
So, Abhijit, on the June, as I highlighted, we had a muted April because of the pan-India rollout of our SFDC, which we got the stabilization happening in the month of May. As we entered, as we exited May and we had June, so about around 17%-18% growth over that. As you rightly elucidated, there are sanctions which will really come across and help us in the quarter two, actually, to come across. You rightly articulated. That's what we see that happening as the system has moved out of its stabilization phase and now it's fully stable.
I think, you have really, one, as to say, really, it was a big transformation project for us, and we took a call of, getting across on a pan-India basis, both for our perspective of, people adaptation and technology, standardization. These were the two things which were the major ones which are related. As a team, as a, first teams, we were able to bounce back, in the month of, May, stabilize and come June, we've been on, track.
The last question that I had really is, if you could share the breakup of your NHB borrowings, what was the regular refinance and what was for the house refinance? In your presentation at quarter, we share incremental borrowings. This quarter is about INR 1,350 crore. It came at about 8%. Can you also share what was the incremental cost of borrowings? If, NHB show that we can try to understand what, what is the margin trajectory that is going to look like. Also, from what we understand, I mean, large part of repo rate increases or PLR increases are already reflecting in, in book of housing financials.
from here, how should yields and how should cost of borrowings move and obviously the impact or trajectory that will have, it will have on the, on the margins?
Yeah. Abhijit, the your question has a 2 part. I think let me go the first part. NHB during this quarter, out of total borrowing, we borrowed almost 20% from NHB in this quarter. Other than NHB also, we have a few good products from the bank institutions, from other private lenders, where we able to borrow less than MCLRs from them. Our overall cost of borrowing for this quarter is 8%. NHB overall in component of our borrowing, if you see, we are roughly 20%-22% in overall our borrowing base. Fresh year, this year also, we got a fresh sanctions, which is almost out of my total borrowing program. We have got a new sanction also, which is around 20% of the borrowing program.
What your mix we have, NHB borrowing and other borrowing, it will remain similar this years, and we hopefully remain in the coming year also. Because we do a lot of lending, which is a very important for NHB and Government of India and financial inclusion, rural, semi-urban area, low ticket, new to credit. Those are our prime segments. That, that helps us in overall in in cost of borrowing side. On overall, I think, we are in this quarter, we, we increased 40 basis point as our increase.
Cost of borrowing side, I think we see a lot of stabilization through through RBI, and I think repo rate in last two cycle, I think government RBI has given a pause. We think is a more or less remain some impact, it really will be there on the old borrowing, but we are in the, in the range where we are able to maintain our healthy margins in the coming quarters.
Okay, thank you. One clarification, NHB borrowing has still coming at lending rates of about 5.5%?
I think, Abhijit, these are renewable questions. I think, I mentioned 20% will remain maintained in the coming quarters. That will help us to maintain our cost of borrowing.
Got it. Got it. Thank you so much. I will come with the question to next question Shweta asking. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nidhesh from Investec. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Firstly, on the disbursement, if you can mention what is the YoY growth for the month of June, July, that gives us confidence that now we have, we have normalized in disbursement that we should expect for the next year. On a YoY basis, what was the disbursement growth in the month of June and July? If you can share that.
As, thanks, Nidhesh. As I, as I highlighted that we went through a big transformation project and these branches in the month of March to pan- India, 348, 350+ kind of branches. As I said, that May was a stabilization period. June was a time when we had 17% of growth, and July also, we continued with the same kind of growth. We see that in the month of August and September, we will have a gradual movement, which would be on the upside.
We are very confident as a team that, after the system stabilization and after the availability of this state-of-the-art technology, it's able to deliver in, in respect to what we've been able to do as al- as always, actually.
Sure. We should expect 20%-25% AUM growth for this year?
Yeah, yeah. 100% for sure, Nidhesh. That's been our guidance throughout. We continue be confident on it, and we are confident that we'll be there in that range of 20-25% AUM growth.
Okay. Secondly, sir, there has been a lot of noise about employee attrition of the management. If you can based on the statistics, how the employee attrition rate is going through, specifically in Q1, how are the trends on employee attrition? Last year, data, we already had an input. If you could share how the trends are in Q1, that would be useful.
Thanks, Nidhesh. From a perspective of the senior management, or if you ask about CXO, CXO minus one, two, I think there is none. Most of the attrition which you see is the front line, which is a normal industry norm, and it is in line with what the industry goes through. Our attempt has always been highlighted, is just really to build careers for people and to invest in people as a part. We say as a part of our journey, it is people and technology. In that, what we've done is for the middle and for the senior management to go across and identify the damn number, to have the leadership programs which are on the real life kind of scenarios of the companies which we face, and really upgrade them and reskill them.
Our, our entire focus has been there on, on people side. That's, that's what it is. It's been a normal, nothing, which is anything which is bothering or any, any, any, anything which is off the one, which I would really highlight. It's a frontline, field, which is always a normal course.
Okay. Lastly, what is the BT out [audio distortion] absolute balance out of the loan book and distribution?
Yeah, it's the range which we have seen in the last few years also, 1.4% of opening AUM f or the quarter.
Okay.
Roughly, our guidance is there, roughly 0.5% every month, it remains BT.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Nidhesh.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi. Question was on OpEx, given that, maybe with respect to the Salesforce implementation plus technology observation, how do we see overall OpEx to assets at this time, we had a higher employee cost, but what [audio distortion] there? Any, any, any components in the employee cost which might and, we should see the moderation in the coming quarters.
Thanks, Kunal. I'll have GSR answer in detail on the breakup of O pEx. It's our endeavor to really work across what is operationally right is operational efficiency. I think, GSR?
Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Kunal. It's two questions. One is manpower cost. There is a overall OpEx trajectory versus AUM. If you see manpower cost, quarter 4 versus quarter 1, sequential quarter, yeah, we have a roughly 8%-9% annual increment cost in this quarter. This is a one-time cost in this quarter, roughly INR 1.25 crore of one of the KMP retirement, retirement benefits and all these things, which is a one-time cost in this quarter. One important item, when you compare with the quarter 4 to quarter 1, in last year, quarter 4, certain ESOP schemes got matured where unvested some quantum was there. That quantum got reversed in the last quarter, which was given as a reversal of INR 10 crore.
Versus in this quarter, we have a normal cost of INR 5 crore-INR 6 crore as ESOP cost, basically. If you eliminate and compare these things, you will find quarter four to quarter one, we are roughly at the 8%-10% incremental and the manpower cost equal to that. I hope that clarify your question. Overall OpEx cost trajectory, yes, you know, we are doing transformations and all these things are there. Generally, in quarter one, OpEx- to- AUM ratio remain little bit elevated because first quarter growth in AUM is lower than what we see in overall growth in full year basis.
As we move ahead, we are confident at the year-end, we will be, whatever we have given a commentary on the annual, annual, we will be in the range of what you have seen, 3.68% last year closing. We will be a few basis points, 5-10 basis points, here and there.
Okay, the entire would be in order.
Roughly, largely look like so. No, no. We have closed it last year, 3.68%. This quarter, we closed 3.79%. As I mentioned, we will be 5-6 basis point here and there. Roughly you can see 3.68% around.
Sure. Quarter employee cost, only INR 1.25 crore related to retirement benefits [audio distortion].
Yeah, normally super cost. Also, if, if you see the percentage increase, so that 1 year, ESOP reversal last year, and this year is a normal ESOP cost. That if you eliminate that thing, so you will find that there is a normal increase in a manpower cost of around 8%-10%. Quarter-on-quarter with, year.
How much, how much for the ESOP?
The ESOP cost , Kunal, is about INR 12 crore, which as highlighted by Krishna ji on the part where when we say INR 12 crore increase, it's because we have INR -5 crore compared to quarter four, which had a reversal, and INR 7 crore of in the current quarter. This amounts to INR 10 crore.
Okay. Correct. Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks, Kunal.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shweta Daptardar from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. I just have one question. Lastly, our product mix has some telling towards other mortgage loans. Is this by design or chance, and how does the mix look like going forward?
If you see, I think, yes, definitely we are in a ratio of generally we want to maintain roughly 35% odd in non-home loans. We've done very thing beautifully in last couple of years. We designed more MSME products, which is giving, give us an extra value creation in the overall zero value, because we have to tie up long-term, low-cost fund for MSME lending. So that is, I think, helping us to in overall spread and NIM basis. So we want to be remain in the similar bucket, somewhere 65%+ home loan, around 30%-35% is a non-home loan.
Non-home loan, you want to work, 50%+ as MSME, and the remaining lend maybe life cycle need or for my existing or new customer loan will become part of that basically.
Sure. Just a follow-up question there. More of these.
If you see in this quarter, quarter one, we have, compared with the year-on-year basis quarter, home loan component is a, is a, is a, is a increase this quarter. So it is almost 6% better than if you compare with the last year, quarter one.
Mm-hmm. Okay, understood. Just a follow-up question there on the because you mentioned about MSME and other products. Can you provide more color? Because retailers and others have been calling on certain concerns on this. Can you provide color on your portfolio, the MSME and small retail ticket lenders? Thanks.
These are, ma'am, I think very important question. All these MSME loans are fully backed by residential mortgage security. 95%+ my customer is living in that house. They mortgage that house to us. My normal LTV comes under that asset, around 45%-50%. It is giving us a yield around somewhere 15%+ yields, given the business by cost of borrowing for this fund is around 8.5%. It's a, it's a good product. We are, now we are in the quarter last, almost in the fifth year of business operation for this product. We run almost one cycle of credit quality also, and we didn't see NPA more than 1% in black book also.
And Shweta, just to add on to what Rawat said, it is another is that we've always followed the cash flow based underwriting practice, and that is our USP. It helps us to maintain that.
Understood, sir. That was very helpful. Thank you.
Thanks, Shweta.
Thank you. Before we go to the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and 1 to join the question queue. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, you may press star and 1 to join the question queue. The next question is from the line of Pallavi Deshpande from Sameeksh a. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. On, on the long-term borrowing of our MSME, which you mentioned earlier, just, you know, what's the rate we are getting it and what's the source of funding, since you said it's coming up and I didn't quite state it?
Pallavi, could you please repeat your question?
Yes. Yes. You mentioned about MSME, you know, that you're getting is at an attractive rate and for the long term also. If you could, you know, share with us what's the tenure and what's the rate you're getting at that. Just, this is to understand from an industry perspective, nothing to do with Aavas, but just wanted t o, because we're seeing a lot of boom in the MSME space. I just want to understand, you know, how good bridging is actually, or since you said it's attractive rate.
You will appreciate, name to take a lender name is more difficult, but I can give the sector-wide something. These are secured borrowing, and as Aavas, we have demonstrated in last 10 years very quality, consciousness, and quality of our portfolio. If you see in last 10 years, we total write off is INR 25 crore, against our total lending of INR 23,000 crore in last 10 years. Market recognize that thing. Accordingly, we get a best price, when we borrow from the market. PSU banks, private banks, all are the, all are the lenders in this market, and on multi-lender also, it's showing interest to lend MSME, MSME, lendings. Roughly, we get around 8-10 years, long-term, borrowing from, from these lenders.
Roughly, pricing terms is 8%-8.5%.
Right, sir. Thank you so much, sir. That's all.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raghav Garg from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Just one question from my side. If you could help us with the absolute amount standing in each of these four states, which is Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. That'll be very helpful. Thank you.
Rajasthan is at the overall basis. You know, Rajasthan, we started our business. Initially, Rajasthan used to be around 80% district. We consciously diversified our business from Rajasthan to MP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttrakhand, Haryana, Delhi, NCR, Karnataka and U.P. Now Rajasthan contribution is in the range of 30%-35%, and Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat is equally around 15%-16%.
Oh, thank you so much from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mayank Agarwal from InCred Capital. Please go ahead. Yes, Mayank Agarwal, you may go ahead with your question. Yes, we can hear you now. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Great one successful tech implementation. My first question is on the benefit of tech implementation. How it would reduce our TAT? Our tax was earlier about 10 + 8. We would benefit on that. Second, in terms of efficiency, how much increased efficiency we could visible because of this tech implementation?
We have Jijy Oommen, our Chief Technology Officer to answer on this.
Hi, Mayank, good afternoon. Yeah, so, to your question. We have actually just gone live in the last quarter with the new technology platform. The main objective of bringing on the new technology platform are threefold. Of course, to bring in better efficiency and productivity in the entire process. Second, how do we make our systems and processes more stable and scalable? Then the third is bringing in the right customer experience, right? Of course, you know, we are in the first quarter post stabilization, and we have enabled the mechanisms to track every single process and timestamp, so that we are able to track the when, you know, the how the processes are or how the file is moving across different processes.
We've brought the entire organization to a common platform that will also help everybody to seamlessly, you know, right from the onboarding of customer going all the way up to the dispersal. We have now the ecosystem in place. Of course, scalability is, you know, something which is already done. At the same time, on the efficiency and, you know, coordination perspective, how the technology is in place, and of course, by quarter by quarter, we will, you know, track. We'll keep improving the different processes. Of course, it will take us some time to reach the final destination, but it's definitely going to be a journey, and that journey has already begun.
On the other side, from the customer experience, we have really started observing that the, you know, the, the, the way in which we are able to get the customer application and, you know, has been much more seamless. You know, we have enforced something called FTR. When a file is brought into the system to start the process, we ensure that all the required checkpoints are set in place. After that, you know, we do not need to go back and forth to the customer to collect documents and, you know, ask more questions. The on-ground feedback from our team has been very, very positive. You know, our team is quite confident that they will be able to, you know, bring in better efficiency and customer experience going forward.
Of course, you know, as I said, the journey has just begun. We will keep, you know, tracking the progress on a month-to-month, quarter-by-quarter basis to make sure that over a period of time, we will reach a substantial amount of, you know, agility, speed, performance and customer experience. I hope this answers your question.
One more thing. Yeah. I'd like to add one point here. See, the stabilization and adaptation. This part is with the opening remarks , Sach inder said we process 33,000 files in a new platform, and we have started seeing some green shoots in the pipe, and which we have seen and we have started experiencing because of which we were able to recover very fast. Two things are very important. That stability of platform is there because the platform is, is at a away from hyper scale stage in between 30 and 45 days. This is 1 big thing. The second thing is the team is able to adapt to the system. I think these 2 things are very important for us to, in terms of Q1, we take care of very much.
We have started seeing some green shoots, and I'm sure this journey has just started as Jijy said. We are looking forward to a big benefit coming out of this digital transformation.
Thanks. That was really useful. My second question is on the new branches which we have established in the new geography in the past 2 to almost years of COVID-19. I, I guess, with the branches, would have been done their learning off as of now and will be expected to continue in disbursement. What is your experience in the disbursement in the new geographies and the new branches established?
In the last two years, if you look at, we have grown big time in Karnataka. We have, we have invested a good amount of things from... significant some investment in Orissa, and we have opened some branches in U.P. also. We are seeing a decent growth happening in, in, in Orissa and in Karnataka. Karnataka has been a very, very, very... If we look at Karnataka is very similar to Gujarat in terms of population, in terms of how many districts are there. If you look at Karnataka, we didn't went very strongly only in Bangalore. Out of 23 branches total we have in Karnataka, only 4 branches are in Bangalore, and remaining 19 branches we have opened in rest of Karnataka.
This is where our, our, our strength lies. We have seen, above in the range of 50%-60% of growth in Karnataka and newer markets, which we have in Himachal, Karnataka, ranges of around 50%-55% in U.P. also and Uttrakhand. That is the range which we are in, but these are very. Still, we consider them as a very nascent market, and we have a huge amount of headroom. and runway to grow in this market, and we will keep investing and exploring newer opportunities.
Okay, thanks. Really useful. Thanks.
Next question is from the line of Abhijit Tibrewal from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for allowing me. Follow-up question. Just thinking aloud on, on this forum, now that you have done this, or rather rolled out this tech transformation, to, to all your branches pan-India. Just wanted to understand, what are two levers to an improvement in throughput? A, better distribution, higher productivity from your branches. The second thing is this new tech, tech platform, this technology transformation that you have undertaken. I, I don't need complete numbers here, but intuitively, if you think about it, how can disbursement momentum improve? A, through better distribution, productivity, and B, through this, this tech transformation that you have done. Can you help us think through that?
Yeah. I think your question is around same thing, which we are internally discussing, at the senior management level, at the zonal head level. After doing the Salesforce implementation and then followed by Oracle FLEXCUBE as well as ERP system. Yes, we are looking how we can enhance our distribution network without expanding our branch network. We are in coming. It's too early to say, but in coming quarters, coming years, we are expanding other way to originate our leads and our business, basically. Because in this process, we have also made a new soft implementation also, which can power thousands of API on real time on various sourcing channels, digital sourcings.
I think you know, last time, sometime that you mentioned, you were almost reaching 10% business with the non-traditional business. In old system, we got exposed to increase beyond 10%, basically. Now, we've seen after this implementation, tech team, our underwriting team, risk team, business team, feel confident. Now we can increase this 10% contribution, which is a non-conventional method, method of sourcing the business. We can increase that channel also in coming years. Yes, efficiency side also, it will help us, like, secondly, mention K, all risk, underwriting system, valuation risk, technical risk, legal risk, everybody is on the same platform on real-time basis. They can do talk to customers, they can real-time basis, they can talk to relationship manager, about the case, about any further input is required, basically.
Efficiency-wise, we look forward, it will substantially increase our efficiency, which used to take, let's say, 13 days, 14 days in our lead time. We are targeting to bring down almost 6-7 days, basically. 6 days, basically. That will help us. Secondly, I think, individually, we are making data science analytics systems more robust in our company, which help us efficiency improvement. That will help us more risk-based pric ing. That will help us more, let's say, lead funnel prioritizing in the lead funnel itself, basically. So that we start to invest risk, we start to invest time and energy when my at score is a certain level. So that thing also will go live in another, let's say, quarter or so.
All these things will help us to build the efficiency, risk pricing, and OpEx will also be come in, in improvised.
Thank you for that, Ghanshyamji. Just one last question from my side. Again, going back, going back to the topic of OpEx. For how many more quarters or how many more quarters do we expect this technology transformation program that you have embarked upon to be completed? A related question is for, and because of that, how many more quarters do you expect the OpEx to remain elevated? Something back, Ghanshyam, you had given a guidance of OpEx of about 3.7% OpEx to assets. After this implementation is complete, the tech transformation is complete, based on whatever your assessment is, what can this OpEx come down to, in the next maybe two years?
Yeah. Abhijit, I think we said it earlier also. Again, we are repeating with the confidence that we are almost cycling, we are almost at peak level. 3.7-3.80 is a peak level. We mentioned that because this year is our investment year, in which we are investing in a tech platform, technology, transformation, everything, basically. From next year onwards, we definitely look forward, looking 20-25 basis point saving on OpEx side continuously for 2-3 years. That will bring back to our original, where we started less than 3% OpEx to AUM level.
Thank you so much, Ghanshyam. That's all from my side.
Thanks, Abhijit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Just to understand. If I'm not wrong, in the last quarter, Q4, you had guided for ROE of somewhere between 15%-20%. Just, just to get an understanding, what would be the ideal timeline? I mean, within 2 years, we can stabilize around that levels?
If you, if you refer our Investor Day conference at Mumbai, and if you compare at opening to closing net worth, because if you know, last 5 years, we never raised any capital. Last 2 years, it is in the IPO. If you compare opening to closing net worth and what are ESOP money we get every year when employee exercises, his shares, we exclude that portion. If you see in last 2 years, we are continuously at 16%+ and return on net- opening net worth. Because of, in all this Ind-AS accounting, everything, profitability, year profitability-wise, you see, that is roughly come somewhere 14-odd percent. If you see increase on net worth, which is it is 16%+ , we are already in that trajectory.
Okay. Okay. I, I thought that I suggested, you were talking about that, the ROE you have made in this quarter is around 13%. I thought you're talking about that ROE coming to 15%-20%?
Well, this, this ROE will as, as a normal, we are giving our directions, long-term directions, is this business is a, is a, is a, is a, at a growth rate of 25% and, and at a 7-8 leverage, we will maintain our ROE 2.5%-3%. This business is long-term sustainable business at 15%-20% ROE business.
Okay. Right. I get it. I get it. Yeah, that's all from us. I'll get back.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nidhesh from Investec. Please go ahead.
Originally we were having a decentralized underwriting system where the branch level the trade decision was happening. The new software implementation, is there any change in workflow on the underwriting side?
Nidhesh, Ashu is this side. See, there is no change in terms of underwriting or assessing the cash flows. New system is going to support the underwriter on all peripheral checks and all the peripheral clerical work, so that he need not to rewrite things. We can be rest assured that through APIs, all the documents are cross-checked and say, sort of, through certain APIs, bank statements actually can be, you know, with certain softwares, you can actually get all the bank statements already calculated, use of account simulator. These kind of clerical things when they do it, and also they can do the prioritization of the cases.
When in one of the questions, how, how the, how the efficiency can be increased, this, this all the documents, when the client puts it up in the system, the underwriter will know which client is, is almost ready with the property and the document so that he can prioritize those, those clients. Because as you know, buying a house is, not an impulsive decisions. Some people log in a proposal while they are still searching for the property, right? These kinds of peripheral things actually, the system will help to the underwriter. As far as our touch and feel of typically self-employed non-professionals visiting their, their businesses, understanding their cash flows, will continue to be, in the same manner.
Sure. The credit decision will be happening at the branch level, right?
it is, it is happening at the branch level. There's no centralization of the credit.
Okay. Sure. Sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. We'll take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sachinder Bhinder, MD and CEO of the company, for closing comments.
Thanks, thanks, ladies and gentlemen. As we conclude tonight's earnings call, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to each one of you for your participation and engagement. Dedication and commitment of our team, the trust and support of our stakeholders and shareholders, and the loyalty of our valued customers has always been instrumental in our growth. Looking ahead, I want to emphasize that we will continue to maintain laser-sharp focus on governance, asset quality, profitability, leveraging technology, and creating a superior customer experience. We remain optimistic about the future and are confident that our strategic initiatives will continue to drive sustainable growth and shareholder value. Once again, thank you for your ongoing support and belief in our vision. If you have any further questions or require additional information, please feel free to reach out to our Investor Relations team. Thank you, and have a wonderful weekend ahead. Thanks.
Thank you very much.