Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited Q4 FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Batlivala & Karani Securities India Private Limited. 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 this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Swarnabha Mukherjee from Batlivala & Karani Securities India Private Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Darwin. Goodb evening ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Batlivala & Karani Securities, I welcome you all to the Q4 FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call of Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited. We have with us Mr. Sundeep Sikka, Executive Director and CEO, along with the top management team of Nippon Life India Asset Management. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sikka for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening and welcome to our Q4 FY Earnings Conference Call. We have with us Chief Business Officer Saugata Chatterjee, Interim Chief Financial Officer Amol Bilagi, Chief Distribution Officer Arpan Saha, Head of ETF Arun Sundaresan, Head of AIF Ashwin Duggal, Deputy Head of AIF Ashwin Duggal, and Matsui -san, Nominee of Nippon Life Japan. Our detailed investor presentation and press release have been uploaded on the exchanges as well as on our website. I would like to share some comments on the recent industry trends and our performance prior to addressing your questions. I'd like to start by mentioning that in FY 2024, NAM India has achieved its highest-ever operating profit at INR 9.58 billion, up 26% year-on-year, as well as profit after tax at INR 11.07 billion, up 53% year-on-year.
Further, in Q4 FY 2024, NAM India has achieved its highest-ever quarterly operating profit of INR 2.82 billion, as well as PAT of INR 3.43 billion. Further, as stated previously as well, our equity net sales and SIP share remain well above the equity AUM owing to the consistent efforts of the business team. We also continue to focus on diversification with specific focus on fixed income, alternative business, and offshore business. Beginning with the markets, equity markets in Q4 FY 2024 showed a more moderate performance as compared to their prior quarters. Nifty moved up by 3% quarter -on -quarter, while Nifty mid-cap and small-cap indices rose by 2% and 4%, respectively. RBI held the repo rate steady at 6.5%, while the 10-year G-Sec moderated by 11 basis points year-on-year to 7.06%.
Coming to the data on MF industry, industry quarterly average AUM grew by 10% quarter-on-quarter and 34% year-on-year in Q4 FY24 to INR 54.1 trillion. Strong momentum in equity segment sustained, as the share of equity in the overall AUM continued to increase, ending at 58% for Q4 FY 2024, up from 52%. Now, moving to the industry inflows, the equity category, excluding index and arbitrage, witnessed a gross inflow of INR 1.94 trillion and a net flow of INR 798 billion. Both gross and inflows were higher on quarter-on-quarter basis. Strong inflows were witnessed across sectoral, thematic, multi-asset class asset allocation funds, and large and mid-cap funds, while inflows in small and mid-cap funds were lower sequentially. Investment-wise SIP group further increased with the SIP contribution for the quarter increased, quarter being INR 573 billion, up 37% year-on-year and 11% quarter-on-quarter.
Monthly SIP flows in March 2024 stood at INR 193 billion, which was another all-time high. SIP folios increased by 10% quarter-on-quarter to 84 million. The fixed income category, debt and liquid, witnessed a net outflow of INR 464 billion in a seasonally weak quarter. The ETF category had a net inflow of INR 196 billion. At the end of the quarter, unique investors in mutual fund industry increased to 44.6 million. That is an increase of 20% year-on-year, while the industry folios increased to 177.9 million. Now, moving to our business performance. We closed the quarter with total assets under management of INR 5.24 trillion. This includes mutual funds, managed accounts, and offshore business. Our mutual fund quarterly AUM grew 14% quarter-on-quarter and 47% year-on-year to reach INR 4.31 trillion.
We have had the highest increase in quarterly average AUM market share, both quarter-on-quarter at 30 basis points and year-on-year at 73 basis points amongst all AMCs. Further, on a year-on-year basis, we have been the fastest-growing AMC within the top 10 players. I would now like to share a few highlights for the quarter. Starting with market share, our market share increased 30 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 7.97%, with the market share increase across all asset categories. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of market share increase that we have witnessed. Our equity market share also continues to improve. It increased to 6.76%, of which there was a nine basis point improvement in Q4 and 58 basis point improvement in FY 2024. Throughout the course of FY 2024, we moved up two positions to fourth in terms of total equity mutual fund AUM, excluding arbitrage.
The share of equity AUM in our overall AUM continued to increase and stood at 49.2% in Q4, up from 48.6% in Q3. Performance of most of our equity schemes remains strong, and this, along with our strong distribution network, digital capability, and strong risk management, helped us to deliver a near double-digit market share in net sales in equity and hybrid segments in Q4 FY 2024. On the segmented front for individual AUM, which consists of retail and HNI AUM, saw further market share improvement. Individual AUM grew 10% quarter-on-quarter to INR 2,578 billion. Market share increased eight basis points quarter-on-quarter to 7.74%. Our corporate AUM grew 16% quarter-on-quarter to INR 1,842 billion. We have also started to regain wallet share with large institutional clients, and this has led to the increase in the share improvement of 70 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 8.49%.
This is our highest market share gain in the corporate segment since June 2020. Our B30 AUM grew 9% quarter-over-quarter to INR 862 billion, which keeps us amongst the fastest-growing large AMCs in B30 locations. Our market share improved six basis points quarter-over-quarter. This segment forms 20% of our AUM versus 18% for the industry. We continue to have large base in the mutual fund industry with 16.5 million unique investors. We are humbled to have one in three mutual fund investors in India who invest with us. I would now like to touch upon some important aspects on our systematic book. I'm happy to share there has been a continued uptick in our systematic flows over the last 11 quarters, which has led to an increase in market share. Our incremental SIP flows in the quarter, we had a market share of above 15%.
SIP market share increased by 305 basis points over March 2023- March 2024, ending with a market share of 9.1%. Our monthly systematic book rose by 11% to INR 23.3 billion for March 2024 over December 2023. This resulted in an annualized SIP book of INR 280 billion. On a year-on-year basis, the monthly systematic book grew by 109% over March 2023, when it was INR 11.2 billion, as against 35% growth for the industry. The number of systematic transactions for the quarter increased 19% quarter-on-quarter to roughly 18.1 million. 62% of the SIP AUM has continued for over five years versus 28% for the industry. Moving on briefly to the ETF segment, we continue to be one of the largest ETF players with an AUM of INR 1.115 trillion and a market share of 16.7%, which increased by 135 basis points quarter-on-quarter.
Our gold ETF remains the biggest ETF in the industry. Our share in the industry ETF folios is 60%. We have 61% share of ETF volume on NSE and BSE. Our ETF average daily volumes across key funds remain higher than the rest of the industry. During the quarter, we launched two new products to further strengthen our passive offerings, namely Nippon India Nifty Bank Index Fund and Nippon India Nifty IT Index Fund. Moving to our distribution franchise, building a robust digital strategy has been a strong focus for NAM India. We are leveraging the ever-changing digital horizon to stay relevant and in line with the growing consumer expectations. Our digital focus has enabled the ingrained digital focus that we have built as Nippon India Mutual Fund has enabled to continuously enhance our digital aspirations, be future-ready, and yet provide a lucid online experience for our investors and franchises.
Digital purchase transactions rose to 6.6 million in FY 2024, up 100% year-on-year. We have witnessed close to 40% increase in quarter four FY 2024 compared to Q3 FY 2024. The digital channel has contributed 60% to the total new purchase transactions in FY 2024. Our physical distribution base is well diversified with a wide presence in 263 locations across the country. We have over 1,400 distributors in total and roughly added 3,400 distributors for the quarter.
Now, I would like to briefly update you on our subsidiaries, namely AIF and Singapore Subsidiary. Starting off with the AIF, as mentioned in past, AIF continues to be an important focus area for NAM India. Under Nippon India AIF, we offer category two and category three alternative investment funds and have a total commitment of INR 61.9 billion across various schemes. The company has started broadening its focus across asset classes and strategies.
Towards this end, we have recently launched a performing credit AIF and long-only small-cap equity AIF. Fund raising is currently underway, and both have undertaken their initial closing. During the quarter, we have undertaken the first closing of our tech VC AIF, Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF Scheme 2A, a direct venture capital fund targeting investments in early growth-stage startups. Also, our tech VC fund launched in 2020 is in an advanced stage of deployment, with nearly 80% of the commitment raised has been deployed across 12 tech and VC funds. On the offshore front, we witnessed good inflow in the quarter from various international geographies, and we remain positive that this trend will continue in the future. We will remain focused on fundraising from international markets and are looking at business opportunities with subsidiaries associated and a larger network of Nippon Life Group.
Nippon Life Japan remains committed in supporting NAM India for international operations. We continue to see interest for India from conventional markets like Europe, Middle East, Japan, and from unconventional markets as LatAm , Thailand, and Korea. Now, on our financial performance, for Q4 FY 2024, revenue stood at INR 4.68 billion, up 34% year-over-year and 11% quarter-over-quarter. Other incomes stood at INR 0.92 billion, up 132% year-over-year and down 14% quarter-over-quarter. Operating profit stood at INR 2.82 billion, up 41% year-over-year and 12% quarter-over-quarter. Profit after tax stood at INR 3.43 billion, an increase of 73% year-over-year and 21% quarter-over-quarter. On a full-year basis for FY 2024, operating profit grew by 26% year-over-year to an INR of 9.58 billion, and the profit after tax grew by 53% year-over-year to INR 11.07 billion.
As mentioned in past, we have a stated dividend policy to distribute 60%-90% of profits to our shareholders. For FY 2024, the Board of Directors have declared a dividend payout of INR 16.5 per share, that is 99% of net profits. This includes the proposed final dividend of INR 11 per share. Overall, FY 2024 has been a strong year for the MF industry and more so for our company. We look forward to FY 2024 and hope to achieve another positive performance. With this, I would like to conclude my remarks and open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have the first question from the line of Lalit Deo from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers. The first question was on so in this quarter, with the strong growth on the AUM side, so we have seen some reduction in yields. So could you give us a broad segment, like segment-wise yield breakup, and also the reason for lower tax rates during the quarter?
Lalit, I'll request my colleague Amol to answer this question, please.
Thanks, Lalit. So hi, Lalit. So on the yield side, Lalit, we have seen a 1% decline on quarter -on -quarter on the yields. And sorry, one basis point. Sorry, 1 basis point on quarter-on-quarter declined yield. So to exclude the ETF, the blended decline has been marginal at 0.5 basis point quarter-on-quarter. And for the segment-wise yields, for equity, the yield stands at 63 basis points. On debt, we would be around 25 basis points. On liquid, in the range of 10-12 basis points. And on ETF, it would be around 15 basis points.
On that? So just on the tax
Sorry?
Just on the tax side, okay.
Yeah. On the tax fund, for the quarter, primarily due to a movement of some of the investments from short-term to long-term, which has resulted in the reduction of tax rates. And also, there has been a reversal of provision for previous years post the completion of tax assessments. So these are the two factors which have affected the lower tax rates for the quarter.
Okay. And this ETF, 15 basis point, includes your gold ETF also, right? And then newer money which is coming on the ETF side as well?
Yes, yes.
Sure. And this quarter, we have done really well on the employee expenses side, and there was some margin increase on the other expenses. So going ahead for FY 2025 and FY 2026, what is our outlook on the expenses side?
Okay. So on the expenses side, very difficult to predict, but probably it should be in the range of 8%-10%, excluding the ESOP cost for the fresh stock grant. Okay. So it should be in the range of 8%-10%.
Okay. And any new plans for ESOPs on this?
Yeah. So today, the board has approved a grant of some ESOPs, and the potential impact of that cost would be around over a period of four years, it would be around in the range of INR 85 crore-INR 90 crore.
Oh, okay. Sure. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. So two questions, actually. First, on the ESOP cost that you just mentioned of about INR 85 crore-INR 90 crore over a four-year period, can you give me a split over the next four years? Second, admin and other OpEx has seen a sharp jump both on a year-over-year and on a quarter-over-quarter basis. So what is happening over there?
And similarly, even the fee and commission expenses. So some sense on what the normalized run rate over there would be, that would be helpful. And third, even our other income, this quarter, we didn't have any big movement in equity. So the indices have been fairly sort of just about a 2.8% move on the Nifty. And the yields have also been fairly stable. So what has driven such a strong performance even on the other income? Some color over there would be helpful. Yeah. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Madhukar, for the question. So on the ESOP cost, we are expecting about 49%-50% of the cost is coming the first year of the next financial year, basically, in this financial year. And that will taper down over the next three financial years. In terms of admin expenses, out of the incremental cost quarter-over-quarter, about 30%-35% cost will be one of the expenses. And the rest would be in normal cost of business on account of marketing that we are marketing, IT spend that we are doing.
On the fee and commission part, this is directly linked to the business. So our alternative and PMS business is directly linked to the business of that. So as the revenue grows, it also results in the increase in the brokerage cost. And the last question was on the other income. So other income is purely mark-to-market. There is no one-offs or nothing here to add on that.
Got it. That's all. Congratulations and all the best.
Thank you, Madhukar.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Congratulations on good set of numbers. So firstly, if you look at your expense ratios as basis points of AUM, that has come out pretty strong and pretty healthy in this quarter and this fiscal. How should we think about this from a, say a two to three year standpoint as basis points of AUM? How would the trajectory be in terms of spending, and which elements of the business are we really investing in to kind of see any elevated expenses?
So Prayesh, I think broadly from our perspective, I think as we mentioned in past, expenses overall, I think going forward, you will see, and we've been seeing in past also, more operating leverage. As the AUMs grow, I think expenses we do not expect any significant increase in expenses broadly. The only area where we'll keep investing is going to be digital. We'll be investing substantially in digital and the brand. And these are the only two areas. The other area that you may see us investing will be in the alternative business, which is at the consol level, not in our AIF, where I think we remain open to acquiring new skill sets wherever required. So that, again, will be more on the human capital side.
Okay. And just as you alluded to the alternative piece. How do you see this business panning out to, say, in the next three-year time frame, what AUM aspirations you would have for this segment?
Prayesh, I think it will be difficult to put a number for AUM, but aspirationally, I think our intent is that today, about 95% of the revenue of the overall company comes from mutual funds. How do we keep reducing that? And that will help by increasing the overall business coming from AIF and offshore. So we do not want to, I think overall, I think as we've been talking in these quarterly calls, whether in mutual fund or AIF, we do not want to target AUM. Our focus will remain on profitability.
Okay. Answer on the offshore piece, where are we in terms of different geographies, and what is the scale-up that we can expect? Are there any advantages in any of the geographies to launch new products? Where are we in that sense?
I think in offshore, let me admit, while we have seen a very strong performance on the mutual fund side, a lot of new things happening on AIF, offshore has taken a little more time than we thought. But I think there's a lot of work that is happening.
We believe over the next two, three years, we'll see some positive things because a lot of offshore, many times, becomes a binary. It's 0-1. It takes more time. But I think from a geography's point of view, needless to say, we'll continue heavily focusing on our home-based target, which is Japan, trying to get more Japanese money into India. I mean, that will be our main focus area. Even the new fund that we mentioned about the AIF Protect Fund, I think the majority of the LPs that we are talking to are from Japan. So Japan will remain as one of our focus areas. But other than that, I think India continues to track money from various markets. I think we've seen some money coming from LatAm this quarter. And overall, our offshore AUM grew 52% in this financial year.
Okay. And last question, out of the current SIP run rate, how much would be, say, via the non-Nippon digital route? So in a way, not from Nippon's website, but from outside, how much of the SIPs would be coming from that?
Well, I'll request my colleague Arpan to take this question, but I'll just as a follow-up. We do not want to differentiate between what is coming from our side and others because I think the idea is we want to create an ecosystem for the investor to have a good digital experience with that. But having said that, Arpan, if you could please take this.
Yeah, sure. So the way we look at our digital over here at Nippon is that when we work with our partners, we have integrations in play. And what happens with the integrations is we always understand what is the platform of choice that a consumer wants to buy on, right? So we have the storefront philosophy where we ensure that if our consumer is going to say, "X, Nippon products should be available on the storefront," versus if the customer comes on our website, anyway, he's getting all the Nippon products. So it's a proper 360 embedded philosophy where we believe that there is no single reason why a consumer would want to come to our website or would want to go to an integrated partner. It is all connected.
Got it. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and one. We have the next question from the line of Swarnabha Mukherjee from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So three questions from my side. First of all, just wanted to understand that the restrictions that we have put in terms of the SIPs and the STPs for the small-cap fund towards the end of March. So would we see for Q1 going ahead, would we see any kind of change in dynamics in terms of the SIP flow considering that particular fund would have been attracting a considerable amount of flows? So wanted to understand from that point of view, how should we think about going ahead on our overall, say, SIP flow book? That is the first one. Second is, in terms of the competitive intensity in the industry, how are we seeing the payout levels? And are we, in order to garner business, do we require to pay out a little bit more to the distributors?
If you could share what are we seeing in the landscape right now? And if you could also give some color on where would be the flow yields vis-à-vis the stock yields, particularly in the growth-oriented segments. And thirdly, also, given that we have been focusing on the HNI segment and that in this particular segment, the distribution happens through slightly larger distributors in several places, can that also have an impact on our overall realizations as we go through them? So these three questions, sir.
So I think I'll request Saugata Chatterjee to take the first question on the split from the small-cap. And I think the competitive advantage, then I'll come back to that after that.
Yeah. So on the small-cap piece, though we are putting restrictions and twice we have brought in restrictions now, the good part is in the past and even after the second limit introduction, our SIP inflows have primarily been in the less than INR 10,000 bracket perpetually, wherein 75%-80% of our SIP investors do come in that space. And hence, after introduction of the new limit also, we haven't seen any sizable reduction in our flows, which is what has been our strength historically. Whenever we have built the SIP book in our system, especially in the small-cap fund, it has been in the smaller ticket space. And on the other side, we are also actively now, like we had mentioned in the previous call, we are seeing sizable inflows in our other schemes like the multi-cap fund, large-cap fund. We have the value fund.
There are multiple funds wherein we are getting now good inflows, which is sort of directing our tilt towards small-cap. And I think going forward, this will be the way we will plan our business on the SIP side.
Understood, sir.
Yeah. The second one, I think the competitive pressure coming because of new AMCs doing higher brokerages and all, I think the way we see it, I think as stated in past, our focus remains on profitable growth. We do not want to get into any price war. I think we are very clear that, I think, for us, overall AUM is while it is important, but profitable AUM is more critical. And that's exactly the reason to also mix it with the second question. We'll continue focusing on retail part even more while HNI market share continues to grow for us.
But retail, we believe, is more sticky and more profitable and more difficult to build and also remains more sticky to the extent, I think, since we talked about the small-cap fund earlier and we said. So you'll be happy to know, I think, while there have been restrictions on small-cap fund across the industry and also for the month of March, February over March, industry saw an outflow of about INR 4,000 crore. But while we are the 25% of the industry size, the outflow that we saw was only 2% of the industry because we have very, very highly retailed. And the top 10 investors in our small-cap fund constitute less than 1%. So the retail adds stickiness and profitability.
And our focus will remain to execute, to go the difficult way of building business, which is retail, small-ticket size, more sticky and more profitable from a long-term point of view.
Right, sir. Sir, any indication on the flow versus stock realizations, what we are seeing right now?
So this is not disclosed, this data, but you can safely assume that the yields on the stock would be higher compared to the flows.
Yeah, yeah. And I guess you said just I think that has been the trend over the last few quarters. Just wanted to understand that has the delta kind of how the delta has moved? Has it kind of widened or narrowed, if you could explain?
Yeah, I'm good. See, for us, as Sundeep mentioned, that we want to be on a profitable side of business. So probably we have not increased the payouts as such. So our yields on the new business have remained constant, okay? And as mentioned, last quarter also, we have rationalized our distribution cost in one of our larger schemes. And this would help us in maintaining our margins on the new cost of SIPs, new cost.
Okay. Got it. And lastly.
Just to add, yeah. Just to add, if you see the behavior of our net sales, which is what we articulated in the opening speech, we have much healthier net sales than the industry. And hence, our old assets are still intact, which is giving us better margins always.
Understood, understood. Sir, just last one quick question. When you mentioned about the HNI segment in your disclosures, is that on the basis of how AMFI defines the HNI segment?
Yeah, very much. Yes. INR 2 lakh +.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Shreya Shivani from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Most of my questions have been answered. I just wanted a clarity that on the staff cost, did you mention that the major increase that will happen next year onwards will be on account of ESOPs and not really any addition to the staff count, right? I should assume the staff count to remain at the 1,000 level for the next foreseeable future, or will there be some additions on that side as well?
Sir, I think your understanding is correct. I think only the staff number of staff will not increase substantially, I think, other than the fact that in our subsidiaries, we may add someone more to grow our business to invest in acquiring certain skill sets. But broadly, your understanding is correct. And the overall mutual fund business, when we put together 1,000+, that number will not change substantially.
Got it. And just also on the admin cost, is there anything the pickup for the last two years has been strong on this cost? Is this in line with the growth in business, or was there anything incremental that has happened?
Hi, Shreya. So Amol here. So just going back on that employee cost, so there would be normal increment that you would see in the employee cost. So that would be there. On the admin cost, probably the need would continue. And this is mainly due to the investment that we are making in our digital assets. And probably we may add some branches in this financial year, but that would not have a major impact on our overall.
So this will be the smaller citizen towns, not the smaller we are already in 263 locations. So the smaller citizen towns, the cost will not be higher.
Got it. Got it. Okay. This is useful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lalit Deo from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Just one question. So what will be the ESOP cost this year and in this quarter as well?
Are you talking about the ESOP cost?
Yeah, yeah. What was the cost for FY 2024? I think necessarily as a quarter quote.
Yeah. So it should be so what I mentioned, the expected cost of the ESOP for over the four-year period is going to be the range of INR 85 crore-INR 90 crore. Of that, 50% of the cost would come in this financial year.
No, no. That will be FY 2024. I was asking for FY 2024, like in the current year cost.
So in FY 2024, the ESOP cost would be around INR 7 crore.
Sure. Thanks.
The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Can you comment a little bit about our flow market share, how that has been? Q2 was very strong. In Q3, there was a little bit of moderation. So Q4, I wanted to just get a sense of whether that is sustaining or not. And you just mentioned the ESOP cost number for this year. Can you just repeat that, actually?
So yeah, on the flow side, Madhukar, Q3 and Q4 continues to be in the similar range. So from an equity net sales point of view, we are in the double-digit space still. And like we had mentioned earlier and Sundeep did mention, small-cap, large-cap, these are certain categories where we have been able to continue to have higher double-digit net sales. And when we take the entire year into aggregate, we also conclude the year with a high double-digit net sales market share for the full year.
Great. Congratulations again. And on the ESOP cost number for FY 2024, can you repeat that?
Just to clarify, all these net sales, what we mentioned is ex of arbitrage.
Yes. Thanks. Thank you.
Hi, Madhukar. So Madhukar, on the ESOP cost, there are two, three things that probably we need to consider. First is that we have come up with the ESOP grant after three years of period, three years. So the last ESOP, it was in 2021. So that's why the ESOP cost for FY 2024 was only INR 7 crore. However, this would be substantially higher given that there's a fresh grant that is happening. And also, this would help us in retaining the talent. And that would help us in ensuring that fixed cost, fixed entry cost does not increase beyond a certain limit.
Sure. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you. To ask a question, participants, you may press star and one on your touch-tone phones. We have the next question from the line of Ronak Singhi, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Ronak, your line has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question.
Yes. Good evening. Congratulations for achieving the highest operating profit this year. So my first question is, given the increased marketing spend in attracting the younger generation alongside with your growing investment in maintaining the data lakes and all in the artificial intelligence space to analyze the investor behavior, I would greatly appreciate if you could provide a breakdown of the SIP contributions by age group, young versus old generation, because I'm interested in understanding the percentage of SIP contributions coming from the young investors versus the old investors since this marketing campaign is being targeted towards the younger generation more.
So Ronak, I think if I could understand your voice was a little faint, but I would like to just share with you a lot of things that you mentioned we are using internally where the artificial intelligence, demographic features, and how to market to our investors. I think one of the reasons for our strong sales is our digital presence is that because that cannot happen manually. So we have been using a lot of these tools internally. And to the earlier question which was asked by one of you to the earlier questions where, I think, the future investments, I think this is an area we'll continue investing for in future also. We do not give breakup of the age background of all our investors and sits in the presentation. But I want to share with you, we use it for business, for sure.
Okay. So my next question will be, sir, so you said that number of staffs has been increased, but I can see a slight reduction in the employee expense cost on Q-on-Q basis. So is it due to outsourcing?
So it is mainly due to the PLI provision that we keep on doing on quarter-on-quarter basis. So that could be the reason for that. Reversal of provision.
Pardon, sir, I cannot hear you.
So we keep on doing our performance incentive quarter-on-quarter. And based on the numbers, we keep on adjusting the provisions. So the downside could be because of that.
Sir, pardon, can you please repeat, sir, actually, your voice was not audible?
I think there's some challenge at your end.
Sorry to interrupt, sir. Ronak, you have a bad connection. The line for you is not very clear. May I request you to please use the handset while you're speaking?
Okay, okay. Sure. I just want to clarify that what provision are you talking about because of the reduction in the internal expense cost basis?
So this is basically the performance incentive of the bonus that we give out to the employees. So this we keep on reviewing quarter-on-quarter basis. And based on the management estimate, we keep on adjusting for that. So the decline in quarter-on-quarter is due to that reason.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bhavin Pande from Athena Investments. Please go ahead.
Hey, hi. Am I audible?
Yeah. Yeah, Bhavan. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Congratulations on great set of numbers. Just sort of wanted to understand what sort of growth have we been looking at both in the MF space and in terms of organic space as well, in terms of any numbers if you could give out in terms of AUM and growth.
I think we will not like to comment on the future growth. I think we believe we're in a sunrise industry. The industry will continue doing well. I think as a management team, we believe our job is to continue execute. Our focus is on profitable growth. So I think I do not want to I think because it will be unfair to put numbers at this point of time because ultimately, this business is also cyclical because of the capital markets. A lot of things keep changing. The reason I'm saying this is because I think when we are going to look to future, we should be conscious of the fact that market cycles also have an impact. Market to market revenue, everything that we do has so this year, the business has been good. There have been very strong tailwinds of the markets.
I think we've been and we've executed well. So we will continue focusing on execution and focus on profitable growth.
Okay. And secondly, in terms of product offerings, is there anything on the cards, especially on the MF side, sort of to maybe offer more products in large or mid-category?
So from our product shelf point of view, we have a very good product shelf at this point of time. We do not see ourselves if you have seen over the last three to four years, we have not been coming out with any funds. I think we believe I think focus on our existing schemes and scaling them up. Having said that, in the past years, we will continue launching a few themes which we believe can help the investors from a long-term point of view. Pure active mutual fund, I think our focus will be to scale up and capitalize on the great fund performance and the track record that we have and build on the existing schemes.
Awesome. That was very helpful. Good luck for the year ahead.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you for coming for the call.
Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of Batlivala & Karani Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.