Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Canara Robeco Asset Management Company, Q2 and H1, FY 2026 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 of the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines 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 star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Savli Mangle from Adfactors PR. Thank you, and over to you, Ms. Mangle.
Thank you, Ranju. Good morning, everyone, and a very warm welcome to our Q2 and H1, FY 2026 earnings conference call. To guide us through the results today, we have the senior management team of Canara Robeco Asset Management Company Ltd, headed by Mr. Rajnish Narula, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Ashwin Purohit, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Atit Turakhiya, Head of Corporate Development. I would like to now hand it over to Mr. Rajnish Narula for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good morning to everybody. It is indeed for us a privilege as well as a historic moment. It is our first analyst call post our listing on the 16th of October. Good morning to everybody. I would like to extend a warm welcome to you all to our earnings call, and thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. With me on this call are Ashwin Purohit, Atit Turakhiya at the Adfactors team, our investor relations team, and Gaurav Goyal, who heads our sales. Since this is a maiden earnings call, I would like to give you a brief about our history and background before getting into business and financial performance. About our background, Canara Robeco Asset Management Company's journey towards becoming one of India's most enduring and trusted names in the mutual fund industry has been an eventful one filled with several milestones.
We are India's second-oldest asset management company with a legacy of over three decades. Established in 1993 as Canbank Investment Management Services Ltd, we started with managing assets of Canbank Mutual Fund under the ownership of Canara Bank. In 2007, we took a major leap forward as Canara Bank, one of India's most respected financial institutions, partnered with Robeco, a global investment leader headquartered in the Netherlands and now part of the Orix Corporation Group, Japan. With this partnership, we became Canara Robeco Asset Management Company Ltd, combining Indian trust with global expertise. CRAM was listed on 16 October 2025, post which Canara Bank now holds a 38% stake, and Orix Corporation holds a 37% stake, and the remaining 25% is held by the public.
At the time of the start of the GAB, we started with a modest AUM of less than INR 3,000 crore, a handful of branches, and a small but deeply committed team united by one purpose: to make investing simple, transparent, and accessible for every Indian household. The mutual fund industry was still relatively new in a nascent stage at that time. SIPs were a new concept. Investor awareness was limited. Yet, with conviction and consistency, we laid the foundation for what has now become one of India's most well-known and trusted asset management institutions. Over the years, we have grown steadily, not just in size but in depth and diversity. Our product basket, which began with a few offerings, has evolved in line with investor preferences and market opportunities.
Today, we manage 26 schemes across equity, debt, and hybrid categories, thoughtfully designed to cater to varied investment goals, time horizons, and risk appetites. This continuous innovation stems from our deep understanding of changing investor behavior and the growing confidence in our investor investment approach. Some of the key operational highlights as of September 30th, 2025: the first one is our closing AUM stands at INR 1.18 lakh crore, up by almost 6% year-on-year, supported by a base of over INR 51 lakh investor folios across India. Two, our quarterly average AUM also grew by 12% year-on-year to close at INR 1.2 lakh crore, a testament to our disciplined investment philosophy and the enduring trust of our investors. Three, our growth has been well-rounded, driven by our healthy equity index of 90%-10% and a balanced investor base with individual investors contributing 86% and institutional investors contributing 14% of our assets.
A key strength of our franchise lies in expanding our SIP book, which now comprises over 2.1 million active SIP accounts with monthly contributions from SIP and STP combined of INR 768 crore . Further, our B30 presence has strengthened meaningfully with monthly average AUM from beyond top 30 cities accounting for INR 288 crore as of 30th September 2025, increasing from INR 261 crore in September of 2024, reflecting our growing reach and relevance across emerging India. Progress has been fueled by a robust distribution ecosystem of over 53,955 panel partners and 27 branches. This is supported by increasing adoption of our digital platforms, allowing us to serve investors seamlessly across geographies as well as achieve internal efficiencies. These achievements testify our resilience, adaptability, and focus on delivering consistent risk-adjusted performance across market cycles. Coming to industry, a short brief on the industry.
On the industry front, Nifty 50 displayed resilience amid global volatility after a brief correction in July and August, which recovered with a 0.8% gain in September, supported by steady domestic inflows and improving sentiment. Despite short-term fluctuations, the broader equity market continues to demonstrate strong underlying fundamentals, reflecting confidence in India's long-term growth story. The Indian mutual fund industry continues its strong growth trajectory driven by rising retail participation, deepening financial inclusion, and increasing investor confidence. As of 30th September 2025, the industry's average quarterly AUM stood at INR 77.14 lakh crore, up 16% year-on-year, highlighting the continued shift of housing savings towards market-linked investments. The systematic investment plan segment continues to be the cornerstone of industry growth.
Monthly SIP flows reached a record of INR 27,269 crore in June of 2025 and further rose to INR 29,361 crore in September of 2025, reflecting the increasing discipline and long-term commitment of Indian investors. The industry, as of September 2025, serves over INR 25.19 crore folios, while B30 cities contribute nearly 19% of monthly average AUM, signaling a steady rise in participation from India's emerging financial centers. These trends reaffirm the growth maturity, depth, and resilience of the Indian mutual fund ecosystem, supported by consistent inflows, rising investor awareness, and confidence in the long-term potential of Indian markets. Financial highlights coming to our financial performance. The first half of FY 2026 reflects our continued focus on sustainable and profitable growth. In H1 FY 2026, our total revenue stood at INR 229.3 crore compared to INR 206.4 crore in H1 FY 2025, representing a growth of 11% year-on-year.
Our operating profit increased to INR 118 crore from INR 96 crore last year, driven by higher average AUM and improved operational efficiency. Our profit after tax, which is PAT for half-year, stood at INR 109.7 crore compared to INR 101.1 crore in the corresponding period last year, marking a robust 9% growth year-on-year. In conclusion, looking ahead, our focus is clear. We want to build scale with stability and performance with purpose. I'm now going to stop here and be ready for any Q&As that you would like to proceed with.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touchstone 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 comes from the line of Mohit Mangal with Centrum. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on our successful listing. Just two or three questions. My first question is that, you know, basically, Rajnish, sir, said that, you know, they have an aspiration to grow 30% in the medium term. If I look at H1 2026 number, the growth seems to be lower at around 10%-11% odd, and the equity is in single digits. What are the strategies in which, you know, the growth could come back to the aspirational levels?
Okay. Is that the only one question you have? Because you said you had three questions.
Yeah. Okay. I'll tell everything together. Second question is that, you know, on the yield front, I assume, you know, we have a bandwidth to increase, right? We are a little on the lower side. How do you intend to increase that? That's question number two. Question number three, I was actually looking at your investment book, which is around INR 650 crore. What would be the right number to look at in terms of other income? Consequently, what would be the right revenue yields, you know, if you could guide to that? Yeah. Those are my three questions.
Okay. Thank you very much. First of all, thank you for the questions. Let me just get to the yield first. I'm going to answer your questions not necessarily in the order that you've mentioned, but basically what, to my mind, is top of the mind for most people and perhaps a little, for me, a conceptual ideology that we have regarding yields in our company. For us in an asset management business, the way we look at yields is quite different from the way you would look at yields in a manufacturing firm. Let me just give you an example. Take, for instance, the phones. Assume you have a Samsung phone. The day Samsung sells that phone to you, the margin on that phone is realized by Samsung. There is no other income that Samsung gets from that phone going forward.
Hence, that yield or margin becomes important for Samsung because the only way they can get more revenues is to sell more phones. For that, they need to increase manufacturing capacity. There is a they do not have the operating leverage. In our case, in the mutual fund industry, when you get a block of business from a distributor, and suppose my margin is INR 100 on that block of business, I have the potential, if the block of business stays with me on year two, year three, year four, to earn more, which means it is an annuity kind of revenue that I earn. It is not a one-time revenue I get. Therefore, you just they are not comparing apples to apples. Hence, margins in our business are very different.
We'd like to believe that we are comfortable within the range of 30-40 basis points in terms of margin. That's the range we are comfortable with because we have an operating leverage. My fund manager can manage INR 1,000 crore or INR 10,000 crore. It's the same cost structure that I have. Therefore, any incremental revenue I get from additional business that we take on board goes straight into my PAT. That's our view on yield. I hope that that's something that, at least from a positioning perspective, you need to understand how we look at margins in the company. In terms of growth, you're absolutely right. Our aspiration is to grow upwards of 20% going forward. That's the aspiration we have.
It's also, you know, you need to see a lot of factors that need to come together to make sure that we can realize that. What's in our hand and control is what we'd like to do. One is to focus on investment performance because that drives AUM as well. Also, we have new products in the pipeline that support existing products, and therefore, we see growth coming from there. There are opportunities to look at new lines of business, but that will happen over time. For the immediate future, it's a couple of new products that we plan to launch going forward. On the investment book, you had a question on the INR 650 crore.
Apart from the skin in the game, which is mandated by regulation to be invested in our funds in the proportion of the AUMs of various schemes that we have, the investment book, the rest of it is invested only in money market funds or overnight funds, liquid funds or overnight funds because that is the mandate of the board. The yields, you can calculate yourself on that. The skin in the game roughly would be about INR 92 crore. The rest of it would be in the liquid and overnight funds. You can calculate the yields yourself on that.
Okay. Also, a couple of follow-up questions. Yields, I understand, you know, you are comfortable with that 30-40 basis points. If I look at competition and assuming that, you know, that we are more than 90% of them in equity, we are supposed to make a little more high yields. Do you think that will increase? That is question number one. Question number two, in terms of other incomes, if I look basically at your RHP as well, I think the other income, which is basically the M2M on investments, was around INR 39 crore - INR 40 crore. I think you have kind of restated in the quarter two numbers. I just wanted to know what would be the right M2M to look at. That is it.
Okay. I'm going to get Ashwin to respond on the question on the investments you have. Coming back on the yield, you know, it is something that I think from an analyst perspective, you need to understand. Just for an argument's sake, if suppose my yield is at 40 basis points and I have a large distributor that is willing to give me a block of business, which I know will bring my yields down by 2 basis points. From 40 basis points, I may come down to 38 basis points. The choice I have is either partner with that distributor or let that business go. If I partner with the distributor, I would get a straight addition to my bottom line because my cost structure, I have an operating leverage, like I mentioned. Basically, the share price basically depends on multiple on PAT, not multiple on yield.
I think this debate on yield needs to be viewed in that context. I'm going to give it to Ashwin to respond to the second part of your question.
Hi. Good morning. Ashwin here.
Yeah.
Your question was how you will project the gain on the investments. It will be very difficult because it is market-driven. My investment size is about INR 94 crore on the skin in the game. If you see in the investor presentation, I have a gain in Q1 of INR 26.24 crore, in Q2 of INR 25.17 crore. In H1, it is INR 27 crore, and H1 of 2026, and H1 of 2025, it is INR 39 crore. It will be very difficult to predict because this quarter, we have made a gain of about INR 2 crore only. It will be a market-driven factor. I would like to please see our operating income has increased, and the operating margin has been consistently operating income has increased at the rate of 20% if you see.
Our operating margins are in the range of 58%-59%. We have increased. To gauge the gain on the investment, it will be very difficult.
Understood. No, no, this is helpful. Thanks, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you must please restrict yourself to two questions. The next question comes from the line of Aadarsh with Negen Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on the listing, and thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to know what is the approximate growth guidance we can consider going forward?
A future-looking statement for me is not in my, you know, ambit, but we typically build for a 20% growth in our internal discussions. That is something that we like to, you know, keep as a focus on. That is really what I think anyone would look at. It is, of course, subject to markets also performing, either staying neutral or growing as well.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Gaurav Jani with Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, and congrats on the listing. Just to start with three questions from my end, you know, starting with the bookkeeping one. Referring to your slide 17, right, the net profit from gain or loss from investment, can you quantify the number for Q4 of 2025 and Q4 of 2024?
Sorry, sir. Come again, please.
Yeah. Referring to slide, net gain from.
Yeah. Okay, sir.
Can you quantify the number for Q4 of 2025 and Q4 of 2024?
Okay. Q4 of 2025 and 2024, we will come back to you because it is not there right now. Give me five minutes. I will come back to you on the figures.
Sure. Secondly, sir, we had, you know, sort of constructed an ESOP nomination committee. You know, what are the findings and have we introduced an ESOP scheme, and how do we look at ESOP cost going ahead?
Okay. The board of directors has approved an ESOP scheme for staff. It's 2% has been set aside for staff. The initial grant, subject to various approvals that are still needed, will be at the IPO price, the mid-range of the IPO band. That's the price at which the initial grant will be given. Thereafter, the grants will be made at market price. That's what's been approved by the board.
Sorry, if you can just elaborate on that in terms of how we look at ESOP cost in FY 2026, if there would be some, and, you know, what will be done in FY 2027?
I think the cost would be marginal in FY 2026. The reason why I'm saying it is because if it is at, you know, the mid-range of the IPO band price. If you look at the IPO band price, it was INR 650-INR 660, I mean, INR 653, I think it was.
INR 662.
To INR 666. If you look at the price band, INR 623, sorry. If you look at the price band, let me just give you the number, right? It is from INR 253-INR 266 was the price band. If you look at the average, it will come to INR 259.5. Say roughly INR 260, just for a calculation perspective. The difference between the market price and the date of granting of the option, which we do not know which date it will be, it is forward-looking. I do not know which date that will be because it is subject to the regulatory approvals as well. You need to get stock exchange approval as well as regulatory approvals before we are able to give that. Whatever the stock price would be at that stage, right now, you know what the stock price is.
Whatever the difference is, and it's going to be marginal because the first allocations that will go out will be not the entire 2%, right? That will be a percentage of that. I can't give you an exact number, but you can do some modeling based on some of the inputs I've given you.
Sure. Sir, you know, the last one, at least for now, and probably we'll come back in the view for follow-ups, is, you know, the recently released consultation paper by Sebi, right? The five basis points that is to be discussed, to be done away with for AMCs, we could see a maximum impact because of our equity share. You know, how do we kind of look at that?
This is, you know, very rightly said, it's a consultative paper. It's not yet part of regulation. It will be perhaps not right on me to comment at this stage. We are working with giving inputs back to the regulator directly as well as through AMFI. Let's see how, in which direction the proposals that have so far been proposed go. We can only come up with coping strategies once these become guidelines or become law for us.
Sure. Thanks. That's it for now. Just to come back to follow-ups.
Thanks, Gaurav.
Hi, Gaurav.
Please go ahead.
Yeah.
You won't have the input?
No, no. The input is I'll provide you later on the investments.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Swarnabha Mukherjee with B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Congrats on a good set of numbers. Most of my questions have been answered. I just wanted to understand that. If I look at, try to calculate your yield, X of the treasury income, just from the management fee side, I can see that compared to, say, 2Q last year, there has been a slight improvement. I just wanted to understand that, is this like any kind of commission renegotiation, et cetera, we have done that is leading to that or any other lever to this? Also, just wanted to understand that if, you know, when you kind of renegotiate the trail after, say, three, four years, is there a scope of kind of reducing that trail at that point, or normally you would prefer to continue with a similar kind of a trail?
What would be the thought on that? A couple of bookkeeping questions. Although we are significantly on the equity side, if you could give us a breakup of the yields on equity, debt, and the liquid books, and if you could break up the SIP book, SIP plus STP book between SIP and STP for the three quarters where you have reported the number.
Okay. If I can respond to your first part of your question, I'll get then my colleagues to respond to the other two parts. In terms of, you know, improvement in the operating margin that you mentioned and whether it's come from basically any renegotiation of trails, just a general statement here. For us, you know, we are an industry where we work with strategic partners. This is a business where it's a distribution-led business in a way because the manufacturer doesn't have its own distribution, right? The distribution and the clients are, in a sense, part of the distribution fraternity. It's important that they get rewarded for the kind of effort, work, and the risk that they take in doing that business for us as well. We work with partners, and therefore partners need to be stable over time.
Therefore, for us, that's very important to make sure that whatever we've committed to them is honored. Having said that, you know, there's also economies of scale that can be derived over time, which is what we see from the regulator as well. We will work with those partners to see how we can drive those benefits so that they show up in our P&L as well. There are cost savings as well, which drive the operating margin. We are looking at some of those as well and see how best we can manage those costs within our system, driving from economies of scale on that side of our business. That's more a general answer. For the other two parts on the SIP and STP, I'm going to get my colleague Atit to respond to you on SIP and STP.
Yeah. Hi. On the SIP-STP funds, the general split is in the region of about 90%-10%, with SIP being around 90% and STP being around 10%. On the blended yield question, for the quarter-ended September, the blended yield for equity was somewhere in the region of around 35 basis points. For fixed income products, debt-oriented fixed income products was about 28 basis points. Liquid and overnight was about 2 basis points. Overall, on an overall basis, it was blended at somewhere in the region of about 33 basis points.
Yeah. This is very helpful. Just one quick follow-up to a previous participant's question. The skin in the game part, which you mentioned in our investment book, is that, would it be entirely our equity, or would it again be in that INR 92 crore, it's a 90%-10% equity-debt mix?
Yeah, it would be 90%-10% because it has to be, you know, in the proportion of your equity funds, right? So it would be roughly in that range.
Okay. Very helpful, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Prayesh Jain with Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning, everyone. Sorry to harp on this question on the yields again. You know, we saw our quarterly AUM increase from, you know, INR 1.1 trillion to almost INR 1.2 trillion. We have still seen a revenue decline on a sequential basis, right, which indicates that the yield has dropped. You know, what could be the reason for that drop in yield? You know, whether the incremental AUM or incremental flows that have come in is from a particular distributor where the commissions are significantly lower, or, you know, what is the kind of impact that is there? Going ahead, you know, as you grow, say, a 20% growth rate in terms of AUM, the telescopic structure that kind of kicks in will impact the yields further. How should you think about your yield basically, you know, going ahead?
It is a very good question. You know, the good part is that the telescopic structure applies to all AMCs in the industry. All the listed, there are five now, will be equally impacted by telescopic pricing. We are not going to be any different. In terms of yields, when you are talking about whether it is coming from a certain section of distributors where the payouts are higher, you need to understand that the distributor fraternity is divided into groups. Like any business, the more a distributor sells, the better pricing they get in the marketplace. The good thing is that their pricing is the same irrespective of which AMC they work for. It is not that the distributor will give a preferential pricing to AMC X versus AMC Y. We all get similar pricing.
I think where you're able to get better pricing is in the MFD segment because those are retail segments and institutional tickets versus retail tickets. In any kind of business, the institutional tickets generally get better pricing. To answer your question, it's always a call that you take. I mentioned earlier as well, I mean, you please let me know what would you do if you were to get a distributor that's wanting to work with you and is able to give you a certain AUM or flows at a certain price. Will you want to take that business or you don't? Those are strategic and tactical decisions you make at that stage. Given the fact that our business is capital-light, it's got an operating leverage, more often than not, most AMCs will actually take that business.
Right. I get that. You know, if you look at the financials, the revenue has dropped from INR 121 crore in Q1 at 2026 to INR 110 crore, right? In fact, even your AUM is actually up almost 10%. What kind of, within this quarter itself, what kind of shows that such a large deviation? We understand, you know, one, not about one basis point all year and there. Some basis point could come from telescopic, some basis point could come from some distributor. This is a very large impact that we've seen sequentially in this quarter. Is there anything else that explains it, or it's just the reasons that you mentioned right now?
I will get Ashwin to respond to it, but it's more to do with accounting. Please go ahead, Ashwin.
If you see the figure of the operating income, which has been given in the annexure to that particularly 17-number page, my operating income has increased at the rate of 17%, 7% from quarter one to quarter two. On quarter two to quarter two basis, it has increased at the rate of 19%, sir. If you see the H1 also, yeah, yeah. Our operating income has increased because our notional gain on the investment has not been the part of the operating income. That is clearly depicted in the statements. Even in the H2 also, our operating income has increased at the rate of 20.19%, sir.
We are going to connect separately on this. The other question is, you know, as an AMC, which other segments you plan to get into, you know, whether you are looking to get into SIFs and other products, categories, which segments you would like to get into?
Yeah. So, you know, all these options in terms of new business opportunities, whether AIFs, SIFs, GIFT City, passives, they're all on the table for us as options. We continue to focus as of now on the main part of the business, which is mutual funds. We are unique in that respect. We want to make sure that our attention is not diverted because anything new you start, the focus in the organization tends to get diverted. We believe that the biggest growth is still coming from the mutual fund space. We want to be focused there. It does not mean that we don't consider these options on a regular basis, and we won't launch them sometime in the future. They're very much on the consider.
Just last one feedback. On the website, the QA and disclosure is available only until Q1 FY 2024. It would be great if the website can give us more details or more historical details on the QA and parts that will help us to build more historical numbers into our models. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. I will take that feedback on board. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Komal Sharma with Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Congratulations on the successful listing. I have a couple of questions here. The first one is with respect to the net inflow. We have seen quite a decline in the QoQ and the YoY. Just wanted to understand any certain color on the part wherein is it due to the redemptions that the company is facing, or that's primarily because of the slowdown in the net inflow? The second question is again on the consultation paper, which SEBI has released. On that, while I understand that it's just the proposal paper, still, do we have, if you can give me some idea on the impact that it could have if it is implemented as it is? The third question is with respect to the operating expense guidance. Currently, we see that on a, it's a 10% increase. How do we see that for the entire year?
The fourth question is with respect to the NFOs. Do we have any NFOs planned for this year? That's the question I have.
Yeah. On the net inflows part, firstly, it's not in public domain. We do not share that information. We will not be able to provide more clarity on that. However, saying that, we would be more or less in line with what the industry is going through. That's one part of it. On the operating expenses, let Ashwin give us guidance on the operating expenses.
Hi. The operating expenses will be more or less in the 12%-15% range.
On the consultation paper that the question was on, you know, like I said earlier, this is a consultation stage at the moment. We will give feedback to the regulator directly as well as through AMFI. If you're asking what the impact will be, you know, on a broad level, the impact will be based on how much is it that the AMCs generally take on themselves and how much they will pass on. So each one's impact will be different. We will come up with our own strategy once we know the full actual, you know, guideline that comes and is mandated by the regulator.
Okay. With respect to the NFOs?
Sorry, we didn't get that part of what you said, Komal.
Do we have any?
Sharma, can you just speak a little louder? Sorry for interfering.
Hello.
Can you speak a little louder? We cannot hear you, yes. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Just wanted to understand, do we have any NFOs planned in the coming year?
NFOs? Yeah, I think we've already disclosed that there are two NFOs that we are looking at. One is the Banking and Financial Services Fund, and then there's the Innovation Fund that we are looking at. They are all subject to regulatory approvals. Based on those approvals, we will launch it either in Q4 or in Q1 of next year, depending on when we get the approvals.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Pawan with Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for the opportunity and kind of some listing. And over the years, you know, building such a strong franchise, delivering such strong AUM growth. A couple of questions. Question one, you know, you have such a strong brand name, Canara and Robeco. But in one of the IPO risk disclosures, you mentioned that a couple of years later, you will have to give up the brand name. Is that understanding correct? And what is the rationale for that?
Actually, a very good question. This has got to do with basically the shareholding pattern. In 2007, it was Robeco that came and actually formed the JV with Canara Bank. Somewhere in 2012 or thereabouts, globally, Robeco, which was then at that point in time owned by Rabobank, was acquired by Orix Corporation Japan. The shareholding moved from Robeco to Orix. You know, Orix owns the Robeco brand globally, but the shareholding is with Orix. Hence, now that we are a listed company, to align the shareholding better, that's been put into the DRHP, that there is a possibility for a brand change. We just wanted a disclosure in case the alignment needs to be done because it's not fair to have a Robeco name in there where the shareholding is that of Orix. That's really the reason for it.
Going forward, you know, we will obviously handle this with care. You're absolutely right. This is a very, very strong brand. We will make sure the migration, if any, will be handled in a manner where the brand is not diluted in any manner.
What about the Canara brand name? My understanding is both the parts will be removed or like alluded that.
No, that's not what the intent is. As long as the shareholding remains, we believe that we would have the right to use Canara brand going forward.
Got it. Any indication from the bank management as to when, if they have like a cliff at future where they want to reduce the shareholding?
No, there is a, you know, there is a regulatory guideline that they need to adhere to. As per RBI regulation, any subsidiary of the bank, the bank needs to hold either 51% or above or 30% and below. In our case, since they are at 38%, they will need to go to 30%. The window for doing that is five years from the date of approval from RBI. The approval from RBI was somewhere, I think, in November of 2024. Five years would mean, say, October of 2029. That is the window for them to reduce their stake to meet the regulatory requirement. Beyond that, there is no indication from the bank to do anything else.
If it comes down to below 30%, is there any chance that you have to give up the Canara name part of the brand?
That's a future, you know, forward.
Not immediate in the two years, but more like a five-year question.
This is a five-year, this is a five-year, you know, window that's available to the bank. They can choose at their discretion when they wish to align with the regulations.
Got it.
Generally, from now, this is again a general statement. You know, we don't see banks, especially public sector banks, diluting their holdings unless it's necessary in companies that they wish to be in.
Understood. Thank you so much for this. It's quite helpful detail. Yeah. May I ask one more question? This is about the yields.
Yes, Pawan, please go ahead.
Yeah. The question that I think Purveesh asked earlier, from the revenue went from INR 121 crore to INR 108 crore. This is purely, we are talking about the operating revenue alone. I'm talking about Q1 FY 2026 to Q2 FY 2026. If I calculate the yields, purely not the net yields, just the sales divided by the quarterly average AUM, in Q1, I got 43.7 basis points. In Q2, I'm getting 35.8 basis points. What is this differential? What is the reason for this fall? Could you please explain again?
Yeah. Just to repeat, see, the total income came down largely on account of the profit and loss that has to be recorded for the skin in the game investment that has been done. If you see our investor presentation on slide number 17, we have given a table over there in which the operating income has been clarified. If you work on those numbers, the operating income for quarter one of this year was about INR 97 crore. That has increased to INR 104 crore. What is the drop in the total income is on account of the fair value market balancing, where in quarter one, it was about INR 24 crore , against which we have only about INR 3.7 crore this quarter. That is where the drop is. I would request you to please look at slide 17 in the investor presentation, which details it out.
Also, I think you need to look at the skin in the game. Just to add one more point in the game, because I think it will give you a little more clarity. You know, we have to be perpetually invested in those schemes as per the regulation. So this is only mark-to-market movement that you'll see every quarter. Therefore, to my mind, because we are perpetually invested, it's not something that we are ever going to take out. It needs to be treated and looked at very differently. Just the operating profit is what you need to look at going forward.
Got it, sir. One last question, if I may squeeze in. In terms of the performance of the schemes themselves, like they're all doing well, but I wouldn't say they're in the top quartile or like, you know, rated four-star or five-star because considering our AUM from the bank is only 10%, you know, having retail measure in participation, equity measure participation, I think the performance of the schemes becomes very material, right? What are the process kind of steps that you are doing to ensure that the performance stays the same or improves going forward?
That's actually a great question. I'm glad you brought it up, Pawan. Because performance, unfortunately, what most people distill it down to is the NAV and basically compare it to the benchmark or compare it to peers. What they don't look at is the risk that you take in those funds while delivering the performance. For example, stress testing, which is mandated, not very many people actually look at it and say in the funds which are critical, like small cap or, say, mid cap or wherever you think that there could be, you know, a shallower market than the large cap market. What's the days on which a portfolio can be liquidated? How many days will 50% of the portfolio take to liquidate it?
That will tell you a better story as to what performance is because we do not look at just one number in terms of performance, okay? We also look at will it meet market conditions should it need to. For us, it is a very conservative approach when we come to performance. I am glad you brought it up because this gives us an opportunity to explain how we actually manage funds. Our objective is to make sure that there are consistent returns over time. If you look at us over a period of 5, 10 years, that is when you will see consistent performance. That is what we encourage people to do as well, is to stay invested with us.
Thank you. Mr. Pawan, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Lalit Deo with Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, sir. Just two questions. Firstly, if we calculate the operating revenue between the mutual fund business and the advisory revenue, it comes around like that. It looks like the advisory revenues remain flat on a sequential basis. I just wanted to understand how should one see this revenue line item going ahead over the next two to three years. Secondly, on the product pipeline, as you mentioned, we are looking at two NFOs for this year. Incrementally, what should be our focus? Like whether we want to focus on the active equity side and do more NFOs on the sectoral thematic categories or are we also looking to build up the passive sector category as well?
Let me address the product question first. You know, we are an active fund manager, and that's where we believe that alpha generators will get rewarded over time. It's not to say that we may not do passives in the future, but in the near term, we are not looking at passives. That's the question for us. In terms of products, we continue to look at gaps, if any, that we see or there is an investor appetite that is building up that we can cater to. That's something that we always try and fulfill. That's why you see the two products that we have proposed to launch over the next three to six months, our position. Having said that, the second part of your question, I'm going to hand it over to Ashwin. He'll respond to that. On the advisory.
Yeah, yeah. We have a consistent percentage from the total revenues of the advisory, and the growth will be also consistent in terms of whatever we have shown.
Just to add to what Ashwin is saying, the advisory fee that we have is not in a way material when you compare to the domestic business that we have. While it is there, it does not form a material part of our operating income.
Okay. Just lastly, on the distribution mix, while we have on an AUM level, we have indicated that around 28% of our AUM is coming from the direct channel. I just wanted to understand on the flow mix as well, on the equity side, what would be a broader mix between the distributors and the national distributors, direct, and the MFD channel? If you could give some color on this.
While the flows data, we cannot give, but it should be more or less in the same share as the AUM data. I mean, you can extrapolate from there. The flows data is not in public domain. We will not be able to share more color on that aspect. On the direct side, I think just another input, while you know we have all the facilities and ecosystem, digital ecosystem that allows people who want to go direct or come direct to do that, the management fee that is earned by the AMC is the same whether it comes through direct or it comes through a distributor. That is something important for the analysts to understand.
Right. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Saket Mehrotra from Tusk Investment. Please restrict yourself to one question. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. I think most of my questions have been answered. Just wanted a quick thought from you, Rajnish, on the fact that let's say in this scenario where this consultation paper gets implemented and given the fact that we are very distributor-heavy, I know you mentioned that you'll always prioritize business over yield. Just wanted to pick your brains on that as to, you know, how do you see this scenario playing out?
I think, you know, this is not the first time that the regulator has looked at passing the benefit of economies of scale to the investor. The mutual fund industry has only grown every time there's been an intervention in that respect. Even the previous one, which was done where the upfront went away in 2019, the industry actually has grown at a much faster rate post that intervention. From a market and industry perspective, you know, I don't believe it's going to impact us much because the industry will grow because there's enough investor interest in investing into markets through the mutual fund route. That will continue to grow. As long as that grows, I think each one, every player will get their fair share. That fair share will depend on performance as well as the way they service their customers.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Rajnish, and wish you all the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Umang Gada with Avener Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on the listing. My one question was on the cost-to-income part, which I see has constantly come down, which is also in line with the AUM growth that we have seen in the last three years. Now going forward with the aspirations to grow around 20% in the AUM part, this cost-to-income should be on a downward trajectory or should it be on the same level as you expect the expenses to increase? I wanted your view here. Also, squeeze in one more small question: do you expect that the direct share in the overall AUM to increase in the next few years or should it remain in the same bracket?
Okay. Thank you. Actually, you actually asked a very good question. To me, cost-to-income ratio is very important for our industry. It's one of the metrics that we look at very closely as well. Again, we don't look at it as an absolute number, but a range. My understanding, given that we have a global shareholder and they tell us that a 50% cost-to-income ratio for global asset managers is considered good, I believe for India, given the kind of cost structures we have, 40% and below is good. We'd like to be in the range of between 30%-40%. That's the range because that gives us enough room to invest tactically when we want to invest in those years and room to bring it down in years where we feel that that's important to do that.
It gives us room to manage our business in a more robust basis. Coming back to direct channel, I expect direct channel to grow only because you have the youngsters coming. They're more comfortable with investing generally through apps, and there have been enough platforms and apps that allow that. I think I see a younger generation. I see my children investing through apps. I'm still a paper pusher, unfortunately, but I still see the younger generation adapting to newer technologies and ways of investing, which is direct, more easily. I do expect it to grow, but I think the growth will be, you know, calibrated.
Can I ask a follow-up if it's okay?
Yeah, please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. The reason to ask, obviously, the direct share, if you the growth expectations calibrated, the reason to ask was again on the yield part because a direct share of AUM allows us to earn more yield on the AUM. Obviously, we are also distributor-heavy. I feel like maybe because of the considerations and you prioritizing business over the yields, I just want to understand the direct share. Should that be able to expand our yields or it should be in the same trajectory?
That's exactly what I mentioned earlier. Whether the money comes in for any mutual fund, this is for across all AMCs, whether it comes direct or through a distributor, the management fee or the yield does not change. The difference goes to the investor. The difference with the NAV is the investor that gets the benefit. It is not an AMC. It does not really matter from a fee perspective.
Thank you. Mr. Gada, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Shobhit Sharma with HDFC Securities Ltd. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I have one question on your accounting policy. Your accounting policy suggests that the fair value change account, fair value on the investment is accounted revenue from operations. Based on my understanding, it seems like your policy is slightly different from how your peers account for it. Any possible reason for that? Secondly, on your employee benefit expenses, can you please classify how much is the ESOP cost for the quarter and H1, and how should we think about it going forward?
Let me come to the ESOP question. I've already explained, you know, I've gone into detail in terms of what the board has approved, right? If you refer to my earlier conversation, I had basically mentioned to you that it's the midpoint between the price band is where the initial grant will be given. Whatever the price is in the market at that point in time of giving the grant, once we receive regulatory approvals, the difference of that will be, you know, adjusted against the P&L. We expect that to be marginal. We don't expect it to be very much in terms of the initial grant. Going forward, any subsequent grants will be at market value, so there will be no impact on the P&L of the company.
Coming to the accounting policy, I think for clarity purposes, we've actually given a breakup when you see on our website. We've broken it up and shown it to you. It's got nothing to do with accounting policy. It's just the way you show your numbers. Going forward, we will continue to give you that clarity by breaking those two up so you have a better visibility on operating income versus mark-to-market gains or losses.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. We have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Rajnish Narula, MD and CEO, for closing comments.
First of all, thank you very much for being on the call. It's our first investor call. Thank you for your patience and for your understanding and for supporting our business. Looking ahead, our focus is clear. We want to build scale with stability and performance with purpose. We also want to build this institution that will survive time. We aim to deliver consistent risk-adjusted returns through disciplined fund management while deepening our retail and B30 presence and to strengthen investor reach. At the same time, we continue to broaden our product mix across asset classes, leveraging technology to enhance speed, efficiency, and investor experience. With a strong emphasis on people and culture, we are fostering a future-ready organization built on trust, innovation, and sustainable growth. Together, these priorities position Canara Robeco to create enduring value for our investors and stakeholders.
I would like to thank you for your support and understanding. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Canara Robeco Asset Management Company Ltd, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.