Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Home First Finance Company India Limited Q1 FY 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Kayal, Head, Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Darwin. Good afternoon, everyone. I hope that all of you and your families are safe and healthy. I extend a very warm welcome to all participants on our Q1 FY 2024 conference call. As usual, Home First Management is represented by MD and CEO, Mr. Manoj Viswanathan, and CFO, Ms. Nutan Gaba Patwari. I hope everybody had an opportunity to go through our investor deck and press release, uploaded on stock exchanges and on our website yesterday. We have also uploaded the Excel fact sheet on our website. We will start this call with an opening remark by Manoj and then Nutan, and then we'll have a Q&A session. With this introduction, I hand over the call to Manoj. Over to you, Manoj.
Thank you, Manish. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to share with you the highlights of our Q1 FY 2024 performance. We delivered a PAT of INR 69 crore for Q1, recording a growth of 8% on a QoQ basis and 34.9% on a YoY basis. This has helped us touch the 15% ROE mark, which is an increase of 60 basis points on QoQ and 220 basis points on a YoY basis. ROA holds steady at 3.9%. Disbursement in Q1 at INR 895 crore was 3% higher on a QoQ and was 35.4% higher on a YoY basis, leading to an AUM of INR 7,776 crore with a YoY growth of 33.3%.
We stayed focused on housing loans, which form 87% of our AUM. Strong liability management has enabled spreads of 5.7% in a steep interest rate environment. Asset quality is at pre-COVID levels and reflects marginal seasonality impact in Q1 FY 2024. 1+ DPD increased from 4% to in Q4 to 4.3% in Q1, but showed a YoY decrease of 60 basis points. Gross Stage 3 is stable, quarter- on- quarter at 1.6%, showing a YoY decline of 50 basis points. Prior to such classification, it stands at 1%, up by 10 basis points from Q4.
Our credit cost is at 40 basis points for the quarter. We will now move on to some more details on the business and our outlook for the current year. Talking about technology, technology has been at the center of our business since inception. Systemic tech-led controls have been implemented across all our operations, providing a strong backbone for our risk management and internal audit processes. Technology continues to be a key driver, with several projects lined up for release during this year, including a new and improved website. App registration continues to be high at 93%, with usage of 55%. We have two key highlights for quarter one: successful adoption of account aggregator model to access the bank statements of customers.
This has dual benefits of maintaining customer privacy, as well as providing richer and more reliable information to underwrite the loan. Usage of e-signatures for loan agreements has moved up to 59%. This has the dual benefit of error-proof customer authentication as well as customer convenience. We added two branches and 17 touchpoints in quarter one. We now have 113 physical branches and 282 touchpoints. We are targeting an AUM growth of 30%+ for FY 2024 to enable us to cross the INR 10,000 crore mar- AUM mark in the next 12-15 months. We are pleased to report that we have added 112 employees in quarter one to reach a total strength of 1,105 employees.
We have expanded our insource coverage to encompass 358 employees, which is 33% of our total employee base. Demand continues to be strong in the affordable housing sector. With our expanded distribution and employee base, we are well-placed to gain market share and deliver strong numbers in the rest of this financial year. With this, I would like to hand over the call to Nutan to take you through the financials. Nutan, over to you.
Thank you. Good afternoon, all. I'd like to start by mentioning that we've touched 15% ROE in quarter one, a number that we've been looking forward to. Moving to financial performance, our Q1 net interest margin is robust at 6.1% on the back of calibrated PLR increases over the last few quarters, timely drawdown of NHB funds, better utilization of balance sheet and operating leverage. Net interest income has gone up by 30.3% in Q1 FY 2024 on a YoY basis. Spread at 5.7% remains well above our guided range of 5.25%. OpEx to Assets is at 3.1% for the quarter. We expect this ratio to remain in the range of 3%-3.2% going ahead as we focus on expansion. Cost to Income at 33 point- 36.3% in Q1 FY 2024, is an increase of 190 basis points on a QoQ basis.
Credit cost at 40 basis points is also within our guided range of 30-50 basis points. Our balance sheet is stronger than before, starting with borrowings. The company continues to have diversified and cost-effective long-term financing sources. We raised funding of INR 1,200 crore in Q1 itself. This remains diversified across banks as well as NHB. Our current borrowing mix is 54% from banks. NHB refinance share increased from 15% in Q4 to 22% in Q1, due to drawdown of INR 600 crore during the quarter. 17% is from Direct Assignment, 4% is from IFC, which is an NCD. We continue to have zero borrowings through commercial paper.
Our cost of borrowing is competitive at 8%, just an increase of 10 basis points from 7.9% on a QoQ basis, despite the continuous impact of MCLR increases on our borrowing book. Coming to capital, our total capital adequacy ratio is 46%, with Tier 1 at 45.5%. Our debt to equity is now 3x . Our June net worth stands at INR 1,868 crore, post-dividend payout in June 2023. Our book value per share is at INR 212. Moving to provisions, we have remained conservative and continue to carry provision overlay over and above the ECL requirements. Our total provision coverage ratio stands at 57.1%. Prior to the NPA reclassification as per RBI circular, our TCR is at 90.8% on June 2023.
With respect to specific transactions, we did Direct Assignment of INR 79 crore during the quarter as a liquidity strategy. We continue to have robust demand for our portfolio of assets. We also executed co-lending transactions of INR 35 crore in this quarter. Co-lending business is growing and expected to contribute around 10% of our disbursements in the near future. 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 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 a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Abhijit Tibrewal from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah. Thank you. First of all, congratulations on a, on a, on a very good quarter. Manoj, Nutan, before I kind of ask the questions that I had, just wanted to understand the kind of delivery that you've had for, for many quarters together now. What is it that you think from, from, from these levels can go wrong? In other words, if I were to rephrase this, what is it that kind of makes you anxious, looking at the overall credit landscape today in mortgages, in particular?
Abhijit, I think, you know, we have actually come through over the last three years. We have actually come through a fairly stressful period during COVID. You know, from a credit perspective, if something were to go wrong, I think that is the time when we saw things going wrong and, you know, several customers being impacted by COVID, et cetera. Post that, the market has actually picked up, the demand has picked up, also the credit performance or the repayment behavior has actually improved quite dramatically across the industry, not only for us. Today, we are actually seeing a far more disciplined and, you know, mature behavior from customers.
As such, I think the answer to your question is that, there is nothing as such which we feel anxious about at this point, from a credit perspective.
Got it. Got it. The other question that I had is, I mean, this, this increasing bounce rate that we've seen in this quarter and subsequently in July, is it just more to do with seasonality or, or, or there is anything else? Because you like, like, like you rightly put, I mean, repayment behavior across the industry, I mean, has increased quite dramatically. I mean, none of the data really points to the fact that, I mean, delinquencies could increase even in the foreseeable future. So how, how to read this, this increase in bounce rates?
Yeah, it is. I mean, we would just put it down to seasonality. Because if you look at it historically, I mean, prior to COVID also, if you go back in history, generally the first quarter is, you know, first two quarters, you know, delinquencies generally tend to inch up a little bit, you know, before settling down again in the next two quarters. I guess, we are seeing a similar kind of, because, you know, the last three years, we were actually used to seeing continuously declining numbers because, you know, it was all, it was all basically a recovery from COVID.
We were expecting every quarter that we would do better than the previous quarter, because customers were recovering from COVID, and they were coming back and repaying. Now that things are stabilized and kind of reached the pre-COVID level, I guess, these kind of fluctuations, quarter- to- quarter, you know, they depending on seasonality, is something probably we have to start looking at.
Got it. One more thing on, on, I would say employees, Manoj. I mean, how to read this? I mean, fourth quarter, when we added about nine branches, the kind of employee addition that we had versus this quarter, when we have added two branches and about 112 employees that have been added. Is it more like a timing issue kind of a thing? Some branches are in progress of being opened, and then they eventually open in the next quarter. Is this what is leading to this, or are there certain functions today, in addition to employees that we need at branches, that we are kind of building on, strengthening, so as to say?
No, you are right. So the employee addition is more, more a function of, you know, timing, because we predominantly hire from campuses. You know, for... Generally, there is a large number of people joining in the first quarter, because that's when the campuses finish their exams and, you know, they release the people for joining. That is the reason people have joined, although the branch addition is only two. Branch addition is also, you know, sometimes bunched up. For example, we have a number of places where there is interior work going on. I mean, leases are being signed, but we normally declare the branches open once, you know, everything is done and, you know, the branch is open for business.
I mean, not when the deal, not when the lease is signed. Some amount of bunching up happens. For example, we are expecting about five-six branches to be opened in this, in this quarter, in the, in the quarter that we are in. Those branches will also need, need people. Those people have already joined. It's, more or less a timing issue.
Got it. My last question was for Manoj. Manoj, if you look at, I mean, the yield cost of borrowing trajectory, obviously, you've reported the incremental cost of borrowings, X of NHB and including NHB. Now, given that where we are, I mean, what quantum of MCLR increases are yet to reflect in our cost of borrowings? From here on, for the next few quarters, how should, I mean, yields... I'm not sure if you've done any more increase in yields or PLR this quarter, but how should yields and cost of borrowing trend leading to what kind of space? Maybe if I can squeeze one last question.
I mean, from, from a process perspective, you would have, you would have noticed that recently there was one HFC where, I mean, they identified some, some flaws. These, these were more in the nature of internal flaws, not on the lending side. I mean, from a process perspective, I mean, what is it that you're doing to further strengthen those processes, just to ensure that something that has happened in the past year does not really happen in, in your organization?
Sure. So Abhijit, to address your first question on cost of borrowing and yields. Cost of borrowing, most impact of MCLR has already come through. There is some lag effect still to come. Based on our projection, like we've been saying, 820, 830 is where we are seeing the peaking to happen. This also assumes that there is no further policy rate change in India. With that assumption, I think, another 20- 25 basis points at best is what we should look at. When we are saying that, we are not looking at repricing our customers, on a totality basis, anymore.
If we still go through the whole journey on 830, we should be able to achieve the 525 spread that we've been guiding. That's what's playing through our mind. At the later part of the year, if we see some softening of interest rates, et cetera, then the conversation can be different in terms of, you know, when do we start seeing passing on to the customers. That's for another quarter conversation. On the process side, let me just get started and of course, Manoj will add.
The process side, at every step of the process, starting from the underwriting, to the, when you look at our processes of functions, the nine-step process that we have in a loan journey, the dispersal, the checks, the penny drop, the reconciliations, unless that we do, across the operations and finance team, kind of, put us in good stead. Now, when we do most reconciliations, they are done seamlessly across functions, through use of multiple scripts, written on, you know, whether it could be Python or some other aspect. These, these systems and processes are well set in our situation. We are not worried, like, for example, central disbursement is something we have done right from the very start of the company.
Just as an example, the topical issue that you raised is around disbursements, and that is something we've been doing right from the very start. Manoj, you want to add to that?
Yeah, I just wanted to say that, you know, we have been focusing on systemic controls right from the start, which is why, you know, we have always kind of advocated a centralized underwriting as well as, you know, operations and dispersal process. The thought process at every stage is that the control should be established in the system itself, so that it is not left to any, you know, manual process of check and balance for any of the critical processes. Even in the case of, for example, bank accounts, we do a penny drop on the customer's bank account. A person who owns the property is the one who gets the payment or the disbursement from us.
The person who holds the title to the property, we check, we ask, we ask them to give us a canceled check to verify the bank statement, and that is the bank, bank into which the disbursement goes in. So we have established those kind of systemic checks in each process, which ensures that all the loopholes are covered. I just wanted to add that.
Sure. Thank you so much, Manoj and Manoj. Wish you and your team the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Shreepal Doshi from Equirus. Please go ahead.
Hello, ma'am, hello, sir, good evening, and congrats on good set of numbers. My question was pertaining to the rate hike. Have you taken any rate hike since April? We had already taken 125 basis points of rate hike. Post that, is there any rate hike? Is all of the rate hike already factored in the interest income now?
The last rate hike that we took was 50 basis points, effective 1st April. That fully got absorbed in the quarter. It's fully reflected in income.
Okay, okay. On the cost of fund side, if there was no benefit of NHB borrowing, what would be our cost of fund, against the 8% that you have reported?
The overall marginal cost of borrowing for this quarter is 7.6%, excluding NHB is 8.8%. If we did not have NHB, the cost of borrowing could have been higher by almost 20 basis points. 15-20 basis points.
All right. Basically, broadly in our range of 8.2%-8.3% that we've been guiding for.
Yes. Yes.
What's the reason behind the increase in 1+ DPD and 30+ DPD?
Increase in 1+ DPD and 30+ DPD.
1+ and 30+ is, I would say, put it as more seasonal, because the last 10 quarters, we have kind of continuously driven down the delinquency, and a lot of it is recovery from COVID. Now that things have reached reached a kind of steady state, you know, if you look at the 1+ , 30+ , there is kind of pre-COVID numbers. There could be minor, you know, movements between quarters. That is basically what it is.
Got it, sir. One last question was pertaining to the increase in EMIs for our customers post, you know, complete implementation of this rate hike that we have taken. What has been that for our customers, the increase in EMIs?
Increase in EMIs, about 65%, 60%, 65% of the customers have no increase in EMI. We have about 30% of the customers who have an increase of between INR 1-INR 1,000. We have about 5% of the customers who have a more than INR 1,000 increase.
Got it, sir. Sir, just last question on the growth front. We've been delivering more than 30% YoY growth for the last five, six quarters, while we've been guiding for close to 20%-30% growth. Would we look at revisiting this growth number in given that our first quarter has also been such a strong quarter, so any revision of growth for the year?
No, we have been guiding to a 30% YoY growth. You know, so and, that's where we are at the moment. I mean, we are a little higher than 30%. We have always been guiding to a 30% YoY growth.
Got it, sir. Okay. Thank you so much, and good luck for the next quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raghav Garg from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity and congrats on the good set of numbers. I have a couple of questions. First one being on yield. They've expanded by about 30 basis points, quarter-on-quarter, despite the rate hike being about 50 basis points, and that has been fully absorbed. I also note that the share of high-yield non-HL has gone up. The point that I'm trying to make here is that the 50 basis point hike plus the change in portfolio mix doesn't fully reflect in the quarter-on-quarter change in the reported yields. Should we understand that there is some sort of pricing pressure because of competition that you are facing? That's my first question. Thanks.
Raghav, there is a portion of NHB which we don't reprice, because that is fixed to the customer and fixed to us. Because of that, this shows a slightly lower increment than the PLR increase.
Okay, fair enough. My second question is that the BT out has also been going up. Any specific thoughts on that? That's been up since last two quarters or not really a concern as of now.
It's not, it's not increased very substantially, so it's not a, not a, not a major concern at, at this point. I think could be, you know, little bit of a reaction to rate hikes, et cetera. Largely it's in the same range of 4%-6% that we have been talking about, since last 10 quarters. We'll have to watch it, watch it for some time, but as of now, it's not something which is a matter of big anxiety.
Would you have observed any kind of competitive tactics by some of the large financers in this quarter?
No, no, nothing which, nothing which is very, you know, you can say, obvious kind of activity, which is. Generally, in the last quarter of the year, there is a lot of interest in balance transfers. But, you know, last, last few quarters, it has not been a focus area for many companies because the rates are, rates have also gone up, so balance transfer was, transfers were also a little difficult to achieve. But, this would be probably just a reaction from customers to the headline rate increases, because they are hearing about rate increases all the time. So some customers probably are taking the initiative to get it, you know, transferred to a lower-cost lender. Could be just, could be just that.
Sure. Just my last question. Can you elaborate on... I noticed that the treasury income has been going up, and and if I look at that as percentage of average investment and cash balance, that's an annualized 12% figure for this quarter. It was, I think, 10% in last quarter. What sort of instruments are these? Because that seems to be contributing a lot to the overall ROA, ROE. Could you explain a little bit more as to, you know, where are we investing this money, and whether this, this yield is sustainable on the investment balance or not? That's all from my side. Thank you.
Raghav, there are only three instruments which we can invest our extra funds. The first one is fixed deposits with banks, T-bills with RBI, and liquid and overnight funds with mutual funds identified where there is no A+ category exposures, where the underlying has no A+ category exposures. Those are the only three categories of funds we are allowed. At present, the yields that we're earning on this is in the range of 6.5%-6.6%. Coming to the part of sustainability, this will really depend on the lower end of the interest rate curve, it's a reflection of that because T-bills, fixed deposits, and liquid funds are directly mapped to the overall policy rates as well as the open market rates.
If we are saying that policy rates are stagnant for some time, this should be.
The calculated yields seem to be way higher, but I think I'll take that offline in the interest of time.
Calculated yields, the challenge is that, sometimes towards the quarter end, the investments, show a slightly lower number. You will have to add the cash and buying balances on the balance sheet and the investments together and then calculate the yields. It should come around 7% somewhere.
Understood. Thanks a lot. That's appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Manoj and Nutan. With respect to this bounce rates, again, going up in 1Q and currently being at almost like 15- odd % level, should we expect then maybe in terms of the 1+ delinquency and 30+ delinquency, it should broadly be something which we have seen over the past two quarters and might not get down towards the pre-COVID level? Okay, maybe pre-COVID of 1+ was almost like 3.2%, and in fact, 30+ was somewhere around, say, 1.7%-2 odd percent. Does it seem that now it should be more kind of a range bound in the current levels?
Not really. I think, like we said, you know, there is like little bit of a seasonal uptick, but our attempt is to continue to keep, you know, working on this, working on these numbers and keep, keep improving these numbers. We also track, I mean, other than the bounce, bounce rate itself, and, as you mentioned, you know, there could be some flow from the bounced cases. But we also track the actual flow from the current bucket to the next bucket. And that number has been fairly stable, or rather, you know, shown some improvement over the last couple of quarters. So which is what gives us the confidence that, you know, the numbers can only improve or, I mean, it can only be stable and improve, improve further.
I'm saying these are two independent numbers. I mean, 15% of the customers are bouncing, and then some of it is flowing forward. Independent of that, we are also looking at, you know, customers who are current at the beginning of the month and then, what percentage is flowing forward. The flow from the current bucket, it has been stable or slightly improving over the last couple of quarters.
Sure. Okay. Secondly, in terms of the sequential momentum as well, in terms of the disbursements, that's been quite good. In fact, when we look at it, does it give much more confidence with respect to maybe the overall AUM traction? Would we maybe stick to, like, maybe 20%-30% odd branch addition during the fiscal, given that it was hardly like two odd branches and maybe 1 Q could be seasonally slow, even in terms of the branch addition?
Yeah, we are looking at about 130 by the end of the year, which is what.
Around 20 branches in this fiscal?
That's right.
Okay. In terms of the growth, does it give you more confidence in terms of building the traction even from this level?
Yeah. Growth is a function of the, you know, dispersal numbers. Dispersal numbers, we are already at a run rate. I mean, so let's say if we take 900 as the current run rate, so that is INR 3,600 crore for the year. INR 3,600 crore for the year should give us the desired AUM growth.
Okay. Okay, great. Okay. Yeah. All the best. Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nidhesh from Investec Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Firstly, on the bounce rate, sorry, on the BT out rate that we have seen slight increase, is there any, any peculiarity that we have seen the customers for which EMI has increased, those customers have, moved out? Have you also tried to look at, the reasons of BT out? Is it, interest rate or higher funding that these customers are seeking?
No, BT out is, generally what we have seen as BT out is triggered by, BT out is triggered by, you know, customers who are, who are just, you know, getting or interested in getting a lower interest rate. I guess the continuous hammering of of this news over the last one year, that rates are going up and, you know, we have also done three rate increases. That would be playing on people's minds, and some people would kind of, you can say, move out of their inertia and, start looking actively, for another lender. I think, that is really what is playing out, over here.
The number of customers who have, who have a, you can say, significant EMI increase is very, very small for, for us to draw any conclusions. Like I said, hardly 5% of our customers have even an INR 1,000 increase in, an INR 1,000 increase in EMI. That is really not a significant base for us to draw any conclusions. Yeah, broadly, the interest is to reduce the interest rate.
Okay, sure. Secondly, if you look at the attrition rates on annual basis, that still remains quite high at around 40%. That, that I know is an industry phenomena, but what we are doing to improve on the attrition rate of employees? Because I think that hampers the growth opportunity or possibility of the business model over a medium to longer term.
attrition rates, have actually moderated for us. If you see, last year, overall average was about, 39%-40%, close to. At the last quarter, quarter four was a little lower, and, quarter one has been actually substantially lower. You know, so, it's been about 26%, actually. In fact, quarter one is actually even better than pre-COVID levels, when the attrition used to be around 30%, 30-ish. Yeah, too early to draw any conclusions, but yeah, quarter one attrition has been much lower.
Okay. Sure, sure, sure. On the ROE, we have reported 15% ROE in this quarter, and now going into the year, I think there will be a pressure on margins, say 20-30 basis points. How should we think ROE for the full year?
Nidhesh, we have to, you know, look at the balance sheet management overall, from a NIM perspective first. We also have some other non-income or non-interest income lines, which we could look at. We have visibility of 15% ROE for the rest of the year.
Sure. Next, on the co-lending. In, in co-lending, when we do co-lending, the income comes into interest income or there's an element which also comes into fee and other income on the co-lending?
There is no upfronting in co-lending. There are two portions of the income. The processing fee goes in the interest income line, like it goes for everyone else. For the spread portion, it comes over the tenure of the loan in the interest income line itself.
Okay, there's nothing which comes in fee and other income, from the co-lending?
No. No, no.
Sure. Just last question on the active connector base for the quarter Q1. What was the count of active connectors we had in Q1?
INR 2,500.
INR 2,500. Thank, thank you. Thank you. That's information.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Nischint Chawathe from Kotak. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats for the for the quarter. If I look at the AUM mix on average ticket size, and we are able to see a consistent rise in the higher tickets. You know, four quarters out, would you see a, you know, the shift further happening towards the higher tickets, or are we kind of stabilizing at these levels? If so, what is the implications on the business, in terms of margins, in terms of, you know, employee incentivization and asset quality? Thank you.
On the ticket sizes, if you see the distribution in the AUM, you know, there is a certain distribution. If you see our current dispersal, that dispersal is also very similar to what is there in the AUM. I think you're probably referring to the ticket size about INR 2.5 million, which is showing a slight increase. I think that is basically because of co-lending. If you, I mean, if you take off 1% or 2%, because this is a contribution of co-lending, the numbers are fairly static across across quarters.
If you see the AUM mix actually. Sorry, go ahead. Sorry, if you see the AUM mix, you know, on average ticket size, both above INR 1.5 million-INR 2.5 million and above INR 2.5 million, I think on a year-on-year basis has seen a, you know, kind of a, kind of a fair amount of increase. I'm just trying to say that, you know, whether it's kind of stabilizes at these 28% and 11% or whatever now, 28-
Yeah, I think this is because of, probably not very high ticket sizes, but within the 0-25 or 5-25 bands, slight redistribution is there. I think the INR 10 lakh-INR 15 lakh ticket size segments is moving up slightly, if you look at our current disbursements. So that is probably increasing the, increasing the overall ticket size. But that is more of an inflation-linked movement in the movement in the ticket size. Nothing that we have done structurally to change our focus.
The question essentially is that if I look at, you know, how would these ratios looking like four quarters down? You know, is it that you kind of keep on seeing the higher tickets increasing because the co-lending goes up or, you know, or, or is it something that now we probably made a shift once and it's popular?
Sorry. I think probably two trends that we can expect is one is that the INR 2 million+ or the INR 2 million-INR 3 million range, or the INR 2 million-INR 2.5 million and INR 2.5 million+, we can expect some increase because of co-lending. If you take away the co-lending, it should be largely the same as what we have been doing in the past. Within the INR 5 lakh-INR 25 lakh range, I think customers who were earlier purchasing houses below INR 10 lakh are probably going beyond the INR 10 lakh range. It's purely an inflation-linked movement. The INR 10 lakh-INR 15 lakh segment has moved up slightly. You will see that circular increase playing out in the overall average ticket size also.
Earlier, average ticket size used to be in the INR 9 lakh-INR 10 lakh range, but now you're seeing it more like sorry, INR 10 lakh-INR 12 lakh range. that's, that's really-- These are the two trends that are likely to play out. More, more loans in the INR 10 lakh-INR 15 lakh range, which will probably come through. This is also because of a strong presence in the southern part of the country, you know, where, you know, affluence is higher and, you know, ticket sales are slightly higher. That is creating a small circular moment in the overall average ticket size.
Structurally, I just want to assure you that we have not done anything to, you can say, incentivize or migrate people to source higher ticket cases.
The, how do you incentivize employees? I mean, is it on number of cases or ticket sizes? You know, then there would be a natural inclination to kind of do these larger tickets.
Right. We do, we do both. There is a value target for employees, and it's also moderated by a number of loans that we need to activate. Indirectly, it boils down to maintaining a check on the ticket size.
Perfect. Thank you. just one, one small question is, any, any, any other NHB lines of funding, you know, that are there in the pipeline?
We are in advanced stages of discussion. There should be something in this quarter, but only when it comes, we can be sure.
These lines of funding on an incremental basis are still sort of a little lower than lower than the rent funding or are kind of.
Yes. Yes.
Obviously. Perfect. Thank you very much, and congrats for a great set of results.
Thank you.
Thank you, Nischint.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mayank Agarwal from InCred Capital. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers. My first question is on, basically, above 80% LTV loans. We have increased, seen an increase of 19% QoQ growth in this segment. Any specific reason for that? What kind of customer are these, and can we see the growth in higher LTV loans going forward?
No, this is again, you know, there would be some, you know, some uptick because of a minor movement because of co-lending. Co-lending largely comes from apartment, apartment rate loans, where the LTVs tend to be high, and that's an industry practice also. That, co-lending loans generally come in the 80%-90% or 75%-85% LTV LTV band. There would be a slight movement because of that. Other than that, we don't see any, we don't see any reason why that particular band will go up.
Okay. Because this was basically INR 200 crore growth in our gross loans. I couldn't see in the Excel gross loan asset.
Sorry to interrupt, but your audio was not clear in between. I request you to please repeat your question.
Is it better now?
Yes, a little better, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah, because actually I am seeing INR 200 crore of increase in the, in, in this quarter for this segment.
Yeah, if you look at it from a percentage, this is, you know, the ratio is the same or slightly lower actually, in terms of ratio.
Okay. Basically, it's due to co-lending only. Okay. Okay. Got it.
Yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's due to co-lending only, and the. There is no change in trend. I mean, whatever trend we have been following earlier, it's the same trend that is continuing. If you look at it as a ratio of the overall portfolio, it is slightly lower than earlier.
Okay. Okay. Great. My second question is basically, we have indicated a spread of 5.25% earlier, but now currently we are in a spread of 5.7%. Assuming in this quarter also, we have increased, liquidity of INR 250 crore because of the NHB funding. Are we, you know, when is it possible, because we have indicated 20-25 basis points of increase in cost of fund only from here on. How we could reach to 5.25%?
We are looking at appropriate origination yields also, and we are also trying to keep some buffers on our side.
Okay.
Are you saying that the rate is already 5.7%, why would it go down to 5.2%, is that the question?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes. We are, there aren't... I mean, I mean, if the rates, rates moderate or taper off from here, then it is, it is fine, but we will still have to pass on. If there's any reduction in rates going forward, then we'll have to pass that on to customers, because when we, when the rates went up, we have passed it on to the customers. We'll have to pass that increase, pass the decrease also to the customers. That is one reason why the rates would, you know, trend down. Still, we are not very sure whether the rates will go up or not.
There could, there could still be a possibility that the rates could go up, you know, go up from here, by, by maybe 10, 20 basis points.
Okay. Sure, sure, sure. We got it. My last question is, now we are at a ROE of 15%, while we are still sitting at a capital adequacy of 45%. What levels of leverage would we be comfortable at? What in next one or two years, let's say if we reach by 18% ROE, would that be a sustainable or there could be a further increase?
You mean increase in capital adequacy or increase in ROE?
ROE, ROE. What could be the, till what it can expand?
Our goal for this year was 15%. For the rest of the year, we would like to sustain this. Next year, we would like to cross 16%.
Okay, because we are growing at a 30%, kind of, AUM growth. We are making an 3.9% kind of ROE, which just basically indicates a 2% kind of increase in ROE this year also.
We, we are, given the interest rate environment and the cost of borrowing increase, it will be a bit early to commit to that.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that's all from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arvind R from Sundaram Alternates. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thank you so much for the opportunity and congratulations...
Sir, you are not audible. If you could please use the handset while you're speaking.
Yeah. Is it better now?
Not really, sir. The volume is low. Maybe you could hold the mic closer, sir.
Yeah. Is it better now?
Yes, this is much better, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity and congratulations on the great set of numbers. I understand we have increased 1 to 125, 150 basis points on the, you know, yields of the, yields to the customers, from if you consider from the fourth quarter of 2022. Am I right?
Yes. 125 basis points.
Yeah. My question is this: I could see average yields also gone up to that in a similar extent, 120, 150, 120 basis points. At the same time, our mix shift towards more and more towards self-employed. Still, the yields, you know, I thought yields could have gone even more higher. That is one, that is one of my first question. I just wanted to understand a rate sensitivity kind of thing. Let's say, a 100 basis points or a 50 basis points cut, what could be the impact on yields or the cost of fund?
On the, you know, yields, there is a very, very marginal increase in self-employed. I think probably one or two basis, 1 or 2 percentage points. That will not really, you know, change, move the needle too much, because the self-employed rate is about 50- 75 basis points higher than a salaried customer. With the 1% or 2% movement in self-employed, it will not change the overall yield too much. As far as sensitivity is concerned, we are anyway consciously trying to keep the yields in the 13%- 14% range, because that's really the core affordable segment.
Beyond 14%, the segment will be, segment that we're accessing will be slightly different in terms of profile. Our attempt is to maintain the yields between 13%-14%.
I also asked this because, like, even LAP loans have grow, you know, gone up in terms of share of AUM. That would also, like, usually give us more yields, right?
Yeah, LAP loans, see, once we reach that, you know, 15% of our disbursements, we have kind of maintained it. What we are seeing in the AUM is just the catch up on that. As far as disbursement is concerned, we are maintaining it at below 15% of our, 15% of our disbursements.
No, sir, I meant, even like a LAP, as a proportion has grown. Like... these two things in, you know, like, high yielding, books, like, in terms of self-employed and LAP also grown, but that has not, it looks like the product shift hasn't, contributed that much, into the yields. That's what I was trying to understand, yeah.
Right. The shift is very marginal, is what we are seeing. Self-employed, again, is moved up by 1% or 2%. LAP is moved up by 1% or 2%. You know, the shift is not significant enough for, for it to contribute a lot to the yields.
Okay. Can we expect this shift, like, to continue, like, this shift towards in the product mix?
Yeah. Arvind, let me try to explain you differently. If you look at the overall LAP mix, that has increased year-on-year by almost 2%. The self-employed has increased by almost 3% on a year-on-year basis. Therefore, you know, ideally what you're saying, where is this yield not coming through? There is almost 10% of the book, which is fixed in nature from NHB, which is also fixed for the customers, which we don't reprice.
Okay, okay.
While the LAP mix and self-employed mix should increase the yields ahead of 125 basis points, as per the discussion we're having, there is something that's pulling down the yield as well, which is the NHB fixed book.
Mm-hmm.
Hence, what you see is the blended increase in the book from 12.7% to 13.7%.
Okay.
I hope that addresses your specific question.
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. Just one more question. OpEx growth has been, like, faster than revenue growth for the past five or six quarters. Like, when can we expect, you know, it to be in, like, in line with the revenue growth or, like, even lesser than that?
What we are aiming to do on OpEx growth is to be in line with AUM growth first.
Okay.
Because when you look at income, income has variations of item of other income as well. AUM is the right way to look at absolute OpEx growth. Now, in OpEx growth, if you look at it, our operating costs at a per loan level or any other metrics, OpEx to Assets, Cost to Income, we are actually quite frugal in our approach and very, very productively running the processes. We will have to move to a stage where we are at a moderate growth level for operating costs to come down. Given the fact that we are at a high growth rate today, opening a lot of branches every year, almost 20+ branches every year, adding people, for us to see a substantial reduction in operating costs is some time away.
Hence, we continue to guide, 3%-3.2% operating costs to AUM for the next two years.
Okay. Okay. Just one last question. This BT out, that which is happening, like, like, who are they going to? Like, are they going to, like, some other NBFC or something else? I'm just trying to understand, yeah.
No, they generally go to banks. If you see the top four com- companies or banks, they go to typically HDFC Limited, it's ICICI Bank, it is Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India. It's largely the big commercial banks that they migrate to, because that is where they get the rates which are, which are, which are satisfactory. Customers wouldn't generally shift for, you know, 1% or 2% change. They generally shift if they're able to get a substantial improvement in their rates. These are generally the entities where they move.
In the, in terms of, you know, AUM growth prospects, which states do you see offer a much, you know, scope for growth? Or maybe, after, you know, I mean, other than, you know, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The prospects are, so the growth states are all growing, I mean, across the board.
Right.
Each, state, each state has got, I mean, there are I mean, the potential is different in different states. They are all different sizes in terms of the affordable housing book. We are seeing growth, come through practically in every market where we are present. That's, that's at least what we are seeing.
This kind of growth can be the same-
Sorry to interrupt. May I request you to please rejoin the queue for follow-up questions?
Yeah. Okay, sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Renish, from ICICI. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks. Thanks, Manoj and Nutan. Congrats on a great set of numbers. Just two questions. One, slightly on the strategic side. You know, of course, the LAP proportion is increasing, you know, maybe a percentage point by every quarter. If we, let's say, track back couple of years, the share has actually now gone up to 12%, versus 5%-6% two years ago, I mean, let's say, pre-COVID time. You know, the existing model, which is more or less based on the connector and the centralized underwriting, and once we see this proportion going up by even, let's say, a percentage point every quarter, maybe within a year or so, this will be above 15%.
What kind of a business strategies we have to grow the LAP product? I mean, the strategy would be similar to what we've been doing in the segment, or there will be some differentiated strategy we are having to scale the LAP book?
LAP is, you know, we are currently originating 15% or disbursing 15% as a LAP product. we had taken a call that we will keep it at 15%. What you will see on the AUM is the catch-up up to 15%. Once it reaches 15%, then it is likely to stay there, because the dispersal rate is only 15%. As such, there's no differentiated strategy because it's only a 15%, the 15% of the share at the moment. Our existing channels, existing branches, originate that little bit of LAP that comes through. We have not set up separate channels or separate vertical for LAP. It's a part of the regular business.
Okay. Okay, got it. This is helpful. Secondly, again, on the ROA side, okay, when we look at the cost to asset as Nutan was highlighting that, we'll continue to invest towards the branches build up, and hence, cost might remain slightly elevated at more than 3% versus, let's say, 2.8% during 2021-2022. Considering there will be some pressure on NIM. How confident we are that we'll be able to sustain this, you know, nearly 4% ROA in coming quarters?
Renish, there could be some softening of the ROA, but the leverage will also pick up gradually.
Okay.
As you have seen that the leverage has continued to increase, with increase in the book. That will continue to support the overall ROE. At an ROE level, through lines, we feel confident at a 15%+ for the rest of the year.
Got it. ROA, there could be some deviation-
Right.
-is what you are saying, maybe because of margin or something, but ROE will, we are confident to sustain at 15%.
Yes.
Okay. Okay. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Chandrasekhar Sridhar, from Fidelity International. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks, for the opportunity. Just wanted to know, given, that the CLSS subsidy, is getting over, by this year end, do we take this into account at all, at the time of sanction? Sort of given this is a long-duration product, do we take that account as our sanction?
No, no, it's over now because this product, we stopped offering this product last March, that is, March 2022, because that's when the scheme got closed. We stopped, stopped offering the product. Throughout last year, there was a residual payout of the earlier cases which were closed. The subsidy came through from the government. You know, the final subsidy came before March this year. Now we don't even expect any more subsidy to come through. I mean, nothing, nothing is due as such. That, that scheme is closed for good, basically.
Right. Okay. wait, and, and, Manoj, I don't know if I heard you right, but you said that you wanted to maintain this level of disbursements, which is sort of INR 300 crore a month, for this year?
I think the question was, you know, what, how do you expect the AUM growth to play out? I said even at the current trend of disbursements, if you, let us say, look at the disbursements run rate, which is about INR 3,600 crore now, that is INR 900 crore per quarter. Even at the current run rate, we should be able to meet our annual AUM growth plan, which is 30%, is what I mentioned. There will be obviously an increase in disbursements in the subsequent quarters.
Got it. Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lalitabh from Anvil Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello?
Hi, Lalitab.
Yeah, hi. Congratulations on a very good set of quarter. Most of the questions have been answered. One small question. This bounce rate has, you know, slightly moved up in the June month, as well as on the Q1. I would like your sense, does it has to do anything with the current environmental issues that we are seeing, you know, floods and all? Or is it something operational, if you can help us understand? Thank you.
Actually, the, the bounce rate movement is very slight, so difficult to establish any trend out of it. Anecdotally, we are not really hearing anything other than the normal reasons for bounces. Very difficult to establish any trend out of it. It's a very, very mark, very, very slight movement, and we have seen this kind of movements in the past also, in some quarters it goes up by 1% or so. I would say, can't read, read much into it.
Right. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manoj Oberoi from YES SECURITIES . Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, this is Rajiv. Congrats on a very good set of numbers. Just one question on growth in terms of, say, Gujarat state. I see very solid growth continuing in Gujarat, and that's the largest market for us. It's growing in line with our overall AUM growth, even on a larger base. We haven't seen much branch addition also in the state. What drives this very strong growth, you know, from the same branches in Gujarat?
Yeah. Gujarat is actually a very urbanized market, so you can actually tap a large part of Gujarat with, you know, presence in a fewer number of places. It's more concentrated. You know, the four, four large cities in Gujarat actually contribute to almost 70% of the business in the state. If you're present in around those cities, you can actually tap 70% of the addressable market. That is one reason why, you know, the number of branch addition is not required. However, we are trying to see if there are any pockets which are left, which are left to penetrate. We are penetrating it through touch points, so you may not see too many branch additions, but there could be touch point additions in Gujarat also.
The idea is to once you have established a, like a branch which is in a nearby area, you don't need to add more branches. You can just add touchpoints and build your distribution. That's, that's what's happening in Gujarat.
Got it. Thank you, and best luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Omkar Kamtikar from Bonanza Portfolio Limited. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. My first question is, there are a few clarifications that I wanted. There was some disturbance in line. We are aiming for the AUM to cross over INR 10,000 crore by the end of this year. Just a clarification. Is this correct?
No, we said 12- 15 months.
Okay.
Yeah, it could, it could-
Okay.
Be in the next-
12-15 months. Okay. 12-15 months for the INR 10,000 crore barrier. Also on the branch addition. How many branches were we going to add in the current years?
We're targeting 130 branches by the end of this financial year. Currently, we are at 113. Yeah.
Okay, 113 branches. Okay.
113 we are at, and 130 is what we are looking to end the year with.
Okay, okay.
Yeah.
Got it, got it. lastly, the co-lending part of the business. This is something that I wanted to understand. The co-lending part that the business is, what type of a difference will it make on the ROA side? Because generally in the co-lending business, you can, you know, slightly improve your ROA. Do we see if the share from that co-lending business increasing over, over the, over the next two, three, four or even to seven to eight quarters, the ROA to improve further?
There is a potential for co-lending to improve ROA at a certain scale. We are slightly away from that scale, and it has to be done at the right yield structure also, and at the right interest rate environment. If all things work, then co-lending can add up to 30 basis points on the ROA. You know, if one of these things is not, at the right stage, then, of course, the addition ends up, ends up being much lower. Let's say we are not projecting any ROA benefit from this in the next six months. We are using the next six months to scale the product and then look forward for the ROA benefit.
Okay, okay. We are currently looking to get rather critical, critical mass and critical mass, and then we, you know, may jump forward on it. That would be correct to understand. Okay. One last clarification with respect to the, you know, portfolio mix. Currently, the portfolio mix, 87% of the portfolio is from home loans, and 12% is from shop loans, and 31% is from salaried, and 69% is from self, salaried and-
Sorry, can you just repeat that?
No, no, no.
69% is from salaried employees, the portfolio mix, and 31% is from self-employed. Correct? Do we, do we see the mix to be same or, you know, what is, what would be the maximum limit that you would want to see on the, you know, self-employed? Is there any upper barrier that you have set for sales? Similar in the shop loans and LAP, is there an upper limit that we might not, you know, go beyond this threshold for funding these.
As far as LAP is concerned, we already set the threshold at 15%, and we are not going beyond that. We have capped it at 15%. Shop loan is really very, very small. I mean, we would like to scale it up more. Currently, it's just 1% of the business. We have not even set any cap. I mean, we would be comfortable for it to go up because it's a good product. We are not facing any problem with whatever we have originated. Again, on the self-employed side, we have never had any upper cap as such. It's just the way the market, you know, market is distributed or the business is distributed for us.
Because, we have, you know, the, the, the way we do business, which attracts more salaried customers, we tend to get more salaried, salaried customers. We don't have any upper cap as such, as far as self-employed is concerned. You may see, you may see as, as we go deeper into the, you know, smaller markets, you may see a slight uptick in the self-employed numbers.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line, line of Ravi Naredi, from Naredi Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and all the best to all of you. You are doing nice, nicely. Is our company loan took by maximum Aam Aadmi? Do you confirm they are technically friendly to any app, or they take the loan from app, app only?
Mostly customers don't take the loan on the app. We actually provide the services on the app. The way it happens is customers say, first take the loan. When they come for the completing the documentation, we educate them on how to use the app. We download the app for them on their mobile. After that, you know, any small queries they have, service queries, statements, et cetera, they can get on the app itself. That they are comfortable with. It saves them a trip to the branch, it saves them a trip to, saves them a phone call. They can get things at their fingertips. If they want to make payments, they can make on the app. That is really the advantage.
Fine. Okay. This, I joined late. In financial year 2024 and 2025, what is our growth plan in our mind?
Growth plan, sir, is to grow at 30%. AUM growth of 30% is what we have in our, in our, in our plan at this point, at this point.
Very nice. Very nice. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raghav Garg from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for the opportunity again. Just one question: you mentioned initially that the stock pool has been expanded substantially, and I understand that that covers about 32% of the employee base. What I wanted to understand more in this is that, have you changed any criteria so as to accommodate more employees, maybe to arrest the attrition, you know, especially in light of the attrition rates that we witnessed in the last couple of years? That's the only question that I have. Thank you.
No, we have not changed any criteria. So our criteria has always been to cover people who are branch managers and above. So we have not changed that criteria. I think overall the numbers, number of people have gone up and, you know, it could just be a timing issue. So because last year, probably those people were not branch managers, this year they've become branch managers. So that number has expanded a bit. Otherwise, we have not changed any criteria.
The, the minimum vintage has to be, what, for, say, an employee to be eligible?
It would be typically. It depends on the level. If somebody's joining at a senior level, then we would not look at the vintage. It would be either almost immediate or in from the next financial year. If they are joining as freshers, then we would look at, look for them to become like a supervisor, either a branch manager or get into a supervisory role in head office.
What kind of timeline would that take for say, a fresher to become a supervisor?
That, that would generally take about two-three years.
Understand. Sure. Thank you a lot. That's all from my side.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Arvind R from Sundaram Alternates. Please go ahead.
Hi there. I just have one question. What is this INR 4.5 crore and INR 4.8 crore in for, you know, fourth quarter 2023 and Q1 2024? What is that income and, like, is that something which will be sustainable and growing?
Yeah. This is, if you're referring, to the other income line, right?
Yeah, yeah. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
This pertains, you know, to some of the marketing we're doing on our website. If you go to our website, you will see some of the insurance partners. For that, we get some fee because we've tied up on a long-term contract that is sustainable in nature.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shreepal Doshi from Equirus. Please go ahead. Shreepal, the line for you has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity once again. The question was on OpEx front. Currently, we are at 3.1% OpEx upon AUM. With the branch addition, you know, in pipeline, do we expect this to move upwards to 3.1%, 3.2%?
Shreepal, the range remains 3%-3.2%. Now, from quarter-to-quarter, this could vary slightly because, you know, sometimes, the exact number of branches through the quarter may not come through. Because, you know, location, people, everything needs to be in place. So 3%-3.2% is a more appropriate range to look forward. A specific number on a particular quarter will be much more difficult at this stage.
Agree, agree. Okay. Got it, ma'am. During this quarter, we have seen the liquidity on balance sheet, that is, you know, investment and cash, as part of the, as percent of the balance sheet has gone up on a sequential basis. What explains this?
First and foremost, this explains our ability to raise funding right at the beginning of the year. We've raised close to INR 200+ crore funding in the first quarter itself. The same set of banks giving us additional lines with higher value. First, it reflects that. Second, you know, though, because we are growing much more in absolute size, last period, last year, same period, we would be doing approximately INR 220 crore-INR 230 crore of disbursements. Now we are doing INR 300 crore+. The need from the balance sheet per se has expanded, we need to keep that much liquidity on the balance sheet.
Okay, going ahead also, there, there won't be any benefit accruing from trimming of excess liquidity? This is the level we will be maintaining on balance sheet. Is it fair to assume?
Yes, Shreepal, what also happens is through the quarter, you know, we sometimes see much lower liquidity levels. The nature of funding is that it kind of bunches up towards the quarter end with disbursements from the banks. What you see at the quarter end may not be there through the quarter.
Right.
It could be slightly lower.
Got it. Got it, ma'am. Last question was on NIM guidance. What is it that we are guiding with respect to FY 2024 NIM from here on?
Closer to 6%.
Okay, got it. Got it, ma'am. Thank you so much, and good luck for the next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Bhise from JM Financial Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers. Pardon me if I may be nitpicking a bit, but if I see the credit cost run rate is up to 40 basis points last two quarters, and the ECL outstanding on the portfolio is, say, down by 10 basis points on a YoY basis or even sequentially. Could you just explain with respect to what do you expect on credit costs and probably the number on write-off, et cetera?
Right. The number on ECL that you talked about, 90 basis points. First and foremost, the decline actually is just 2 basis points, because we present our data in one decimal numbers, so it looks like a 10 basis point reduction from 1.0 basis points to 0.9 basis points. If you look at a double decimal number, the drop is 2 basis points. Now, this, this is coming from broadly two reasons. First, of course, the growth in the book itself, which needs to be provided for, which is essentially parked in stage one. Then, as we've been discussing through the call, there is slight increase in the 30 DPD and the 1 DPD, which needs for a higher provision.
Then the overall provision kind of looks slightly lower. But if you look at on stage to stage basis and also on a total provision coverage ratio basis, it's actually quite healthy and way above the ECL requirements. That addresses the ECL part of your question. Coming to credit cost, the 40 basis points, out of this, about, so this is about INR 7.5 crore in absolute number, out of which around INR 4 crore is the increase in ECL, and the balance is the shorter, large part of it is the shorter recoveries that we write off as we repossess and close the loans through the quarter. I hope that explains the details on credit cost and ECL
Yeah, this is helpful. Thank you and all the best. Thanks again.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Omkar Kamtikar from Bonanza Portfolio Limited. Please go ahead.
No, my, my, question was asked by someone and it was answered. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Manoj Viswanathan for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining the call. I hope we have been able to answer all your queries. In case you require any further details, you may get in touch with Manish Kayal, who looks after in this release. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Home First Finance Company India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.