AGM 2023

Jul 16, 2023

Dear shareholders, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 28th annual general meeting of the company, which is being held through video conference in accordance with the relevant guidelines issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and SEBI. Before we commence the formal proceedings, I would like to apprise you of certain aspects which are relevant and are required for the smooth conduct of the meeting. The facility of joining this AGM through video conference is being made available for the members on a first come, first served basis. This meeting is being administered and facilitated by the moderator. To avoid any background noises and disturbance and to ensure smooth and seamless proceedings, the moderator has by default placed all the attending shareholders on mute. Once the question and answer session starts, names of the speakers, shareholders who have pre-registered themselves as speakers will be announced one by one and such speaker shareholders would then be put to an unmute mode. Such speaker shareholder would be required to click the video on button on his screen. While speaking, it would be preferable for the speaker shareholder to use the earphones for better voice clarity and receptivity. It is advisable to minimize any noise in the background and ensure that no other device is connected to Wi-Fi during this period. It is also advisable that during such period, no other application is running on their device, and their location has proper provision of light and in order to have a good video experience. In case, due to any technical or other reasons, a speaker shareholder is not able to join through video mode, then he or she may also join through audio mode. Possibility of connectivity problem or poor bandwidth issues cannot be ruled out at speaker's end. In such a case, we would request the next speaker shareholder to join. Once the connectivity improves, the previous speaker shareholder will be once again requested to participate and speak after the other pre-registered speaker shareholders have completed their turn to speak. In the interest of time, and to afford opportunity to each of the pre-registered speaker shareholders to speak, all the speaker shareholders are being humbly requested to limit their speaking content to a maximum of 3 minutes. For any technical issues which any of the shareholders may face during the period of this meeting, they may call the helpline number, which has been provided in the notice of this AGM, and we assure to provide the best possible assistance. Live streaming of this meeting is also being webcast on NSDL's website. The company has taken all necessary steps to enable and ensure effective participation and voting by the shareholders. I would now like to request the Chairperson of the Board, Mr. Upendra Kumar Sinha, to chair the proceedings of this AGM. Thank you, Nilufer. Good afternoon to all our dear shareholders. I wish to disclose that I am the chairperson of the board of the company, and that I have joined the meeting through video conference from my residence in New Delhi. On behalf of the board of management, I welcome all of you and extend our sincere gratitude for attending this 28th annual general meeting of your company. I hope all of you and your families are in good health. I have been advised by the company secretary that the requisite quorum is present to validly conduct the proceedings of this meeting. Participation of members through video conference is being reckoned for the purpose of quorum as per the circular issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Section 103 of the Companies Act, 2013. I therefore now call the meeting to order. I now call upon the participating board members to introduce themselves one by one. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Sundeep Sikka, CEO and Executive Director of your company, and I have joined this AGM from the registered office of the company through video conference. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Ameeta Chatterjee, and I have joined this AGM from my residence in Mumbai through video conference. I wish to inform you that I am an independent director and also the chairperson of the Stakeholders Relationship Committee of the board. Good afternoon, everyone. I think Mr. Malik is. Mr. Malik, request you to unmute yourself. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm General Ved Prakash Malik, and I have joined this AGM from my residence in Panchkula through video conference. I wish to inform you that I am an independent director and also the chairperson of Nomination and Remuneration Committee of this board. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Ashvin Parekh, and I've joined this AGM from my office in Mumbai through video conference. I wish to inform that I am an Independent Director and the Chairperson of the Audit Committee of the Board. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Balasubramanyam Sriram. I have joined this AGM from my residence in Chennai through video conference. I wish to submit that I am an independent director in your company. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Minoru Kimura, Director of the company, and I have joined this AGM from Tokyo, Japan, through video conference. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Tomohiro Yao, director of the company, and I have joined this AGM from Singapore through video conference. I wish to inform that I am the chairperson of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee and the Risk Management Committee of the board. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Hiroki Yamauchi, director of the company, and I have joined this AGM from Tokyo, Japan through video conference. Dear shareholders, please note that in addition to the key executives and leaders of the company who have joined this meeting through video conference, the statutory auditors of the company, that is S R Batliboi & Co. LLP, and the secretarial auditor of the company, that is Mr. Mukesh Siroya of M. Siroya & Company, have also joined this meeting in a similar fashion. The company has received intimation from corporate shareholder appointing an authorized representative under Section 113 of the Companies Act, 2013 only from one shareholder in respect of 45 crore, 90 lakh, 28,095 shares of INR 10 each, which constitutes 73.64% of the company's paid-up equity share capital. Under such kind of format, there is no possibility of securing physical attendance of the members. Therefore, in line with the applicable guidelines, there is no requirement of appointing proxies. Registers, documents, and records as required under the applicable law are available for inspection by the members. Members seeking to inspect the such documents can send an email to the designated email address, that is investorelation@nipponindiaim.com. Members who have not voted earlier through remote e-voting can cast their vote during the course of this meeting through e-voting facility. The annual report of the financial year 2022/2023 has already been sent to you. I request that the notice convening this meeting, as well as the auditor's report on both the standalone and consolidated audited financial statements of the company, and the secretarial audit report for the year ended March 31, 2023 be taken as read since there are no qualifications in these reports. I now request Mr. Sundeep Sikka, who is the company's Executive Director and CEO, to address this august gathering and also provide a business and information update about the company. Thank you, Mr. Sinha. Respected shareholders, good afternoon to everyone. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the team at NAM India, I would like to thank you for joining our 20th annual general meeting. Overall economic growth has seen a rebound after the pandemic, and the real GDP growth for FY 2023 is 7% plus. India continues to attract higher flows into capital markets through retail, institutional, and offshore investors. Your company continues to work across mutual funds, AIF, and offshore mandates to capitalize on these flows. The effect of higher retail flows into capital market is also visible by 28% growth in the Demat accounts in India, which have reached INR 11.4 crores. The systematic monthly inflows, that is SIP flows at an industry level, are at a historic high of INR 14,300 crores as on March 2023, up from INR 12,300 crores in March 2022, which roughly translates to INR 100 per month per Indian. Now, let me start with an update on the mutual fund segment, which forms a core part of our business. With increasing financialization, higher awareness, and better reach through new age technology platforms and distribution network, mutual fund industry witnessed a growth of 13% in folios and 5.5% in AUM. The AUM has reached an historic high of INR 4,050,000 crores. The potential of mutual fund products as a long-term wealth creator is being realized by investors over the last few years, as it is evidenced by the strong influx of new investors. Unique investors in mutual fund industry in India grew by 21% CAGR over the last 3 years. While mutual fund AUM is at all-time high, mutual funds still accounts for only 6%-7% of the household savings in India. This, along with the under-penetration, where only 3% of the population is investing in India, signifies robust growth potential for asset management industry in times to come. Your company is at the forefront of fostering this opportunity of financialization by managing assets across investor spectrum to meet their varying needs. I'm proud to state that 1 in 3 unique mutual fund investors in India is investing in your company. It's an honor and privilege to be trusted by 1.35 crore investors, which is 36% market share of all the investors in India. Our systematic monthly flows increased to INR 1,115 in March 2023, up from INR 733 crores in March 2022, and indicating an annualized flow of INR 13,400 per annum. Your company will strive to serve the interest of the unitholders in their journey towards wealth creation with the right people, right products, partnership and performance. We remain committed to wealth creation for our unitholders and profitable growth for our shareholders with strong risk management and processes at the core. Further, your company remains focused on its digital infrastructure with our platform being partner of choice both for customers and the distributors. Our digital franchise contributed 57% of the total purchase transactions in FY 2023. We had nine new digital purchases every one minute, and we were searched on Google once in every 2.6 seconds. The management team continues to leverage the experience and directions that we receive from our esteemed board members in every part of our business. For this, we'd like to express our gratitude towards them. Your company continues with the philosophy of sharing prosperity with our shareholders through dividends. I'm happy to announce that board has proposed distribution of 100% of profits of FY 2023 to the shareholders, which is the highest dividend payout by the company. As a responsible investment manager, your company continues to move forward in achieving its ESG goals. We became UNPRI signatory in June 2021, and have adopted a structured approach towards imbibing ESG principles across all operations. Your company has positively impacted more than 3.8 lakh lives through its CSR activities over the years and has engaged with reputed institutions including Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Indian Army, CRY, Olympic Gold Quest as a part of outreach efforts. As part of our investment process, we also take stewardship responsibility very seriously and aim to protect the interest of the minority shareholders through our stewardship code. I would like to inform you that in FY 2023, we voted against 9,000+ resolutions in our investee company. To sum up, we remain committed to creating value for all our stakeholders, including investors, shareholders, partners, and society. With this backdrop, please allow me to go through the company's position and performance in FY 2023. Your company is India's largest foreign-owned asset management company, managing INR 3.6 lakh crore with interest across asset management space, including mutual funds, both active and passive, AIF, venture cap funds, and offshore business. It is an absolute honor and privilege to serve 1.3 crore unique investors through our digital assets, our physical network of 270 locations, and a strong base of 971,000 distributors. Today, one in three mutual fund investors in India have been investing your company with their investments. While we have the largest investor base in the country, we are happy to share that we added 15 lakh new unique investors who have joined us during this year, leading to a market share of 36% of unique investors in the country. Further, our AUM ranking increased by 2 spots from sixth to number fourth in FY 2023. I would now like to share with you an overview of our performance in FY 2023. Your company is a true blue asset manager. While mutual fund remains the dominant business, we manage INR of 3.6 lakh across business lines with operations in mutual funds, ETFs, AIF, venture funds, and offshore business. We offer a comprehensive product bouquet to our investors across these business lines that cater to investors at all levels of expertise, risk return profile, and investment horizons. As on March 31, 2023, your company managed 103 open-ended schemes across categories of equity, fixed income, hybrid, ETF, index, real estate, and venture funds. I would like to take you through the highlights of the various business lines, starting with mutual fund business. Within mutual fund business, we cater to all type of investors, retail, HNI, corporate investors. We have one of the largest retail franchise in the country, having 29% of AUM from retail assets against the industry average of 25%. Your company continues to have strong presence in smaller cities and towns. Our presence in beyond top 30 cities in India is strong with 19% of the AUM coming from these locations, compared to the industry average of 17%. We continue to enjoy trust of our 1.35 crore investors with business being de-risked across asset classes. We have a healthy asset mix with equity AUM at 44%, ETF at 24%, and debt funds, debt and liquid funds at 31%. Over a 5-year period, the share of profitable equity mutual fund, mutual fund AUM within our asset mix has increased from 39% to 44%, while the share of ETF AUM has increased from 9% to 24%. As you know, systematic investment has been the backbone of the Indian mutual fund industry. Your company continues to focus on long-term, stable, profitable growth. With high focus on SIPs, I'm happy to share that your company has a systematic AUM of in excess of INR 58,000 crore with an annualized systematic book of INR 13,400 crore. In FY 2013 we added 9 lakh systematic investment folios, taking our total folio base to 48 lakh. Given our higher presence in smaller cities and towns, we have a lower ticket size versus the industry. This helps us to promote financial inclusion, while at the same time gives us sticky AUM. Responding to the changing needs of the investor, your company has also been focusing on ETF business. As you may remember, we had acquired business of Goldman Sachs in 2016, and since then, the AUM has increased 10 times to in excess of INR 70,000 crore, and investor base has increased from 42,000 investors to 1 crore investors. We offer 25 ETFs, including having the largest gold and silver ETF in the country. For ETF, liquidity is one of the most critical factors that determine the flows in ETF business and has a direct bearing on the efficiency of the product. Our 61% of folio share enables us to have 70% volume share on the stock exchanges. The average daily volume of our flagship funds is 64 times the industry average. Your company is only non-bank sponsored AMC within the top five AMCs in India. This has been possible due to strong distribution network, both physical and digital, as well as trust of our investors. Your company has one of the largest distributor base of 91,000 across IFAs, national distributors and banks. Our share of AUM from IFAs is 58%, which is the highest within the top five AMCs. No single distributor contributes more than 5% of the AUM, indicating the granular nature of our business. India is a vast country with diverse investor segments and every segment having different needs and characteristics. To capture this opportunity, we have created separate business verticals to cater to investors from small cities and towns, to investors who are investing from as small as INR 500 to large institutional investors. We remain at the forefront of digital revolution with our platforms being a partner of choice for customer and distributors and all other fintech partners. While we have the largest physical network in the country, our digital strategy remains at the core for our future growth. Our future-ready digital platforms provide best-in-class experience to all our stakeholders, including customers and partners. We have built a robust digital infrastructure, which we have strengthened over a period of time with collaboration with leading technology companies like Adobe, IBM, and others. The digital channel contributes 57% of our new purchase transactions in FY 2023, with the total digital purchase transaction at INR 33 lakhs. I'm happy to share we add 9 digital purchases every minute, and Nippon India Mutual Fund was searched digitally once in every 2.6 seconds. I'm happy to share. We will continue to focus our digital strategy as it adds to our reach, increases operational efficiency, and improves customer experience. As mentioned earlier, we will continue to diversify into new business areas, mainly non-mutual fund business. Our subsidiary, Nippon Life India AIF Management Limited, manages 17 schemes across business lines. We have commitments in excess of INR 5,600 crores across our AIF schemes in equity, debt, venture capital, and real estate. Going forward, alternates will be an important focus area, and we expect its contribution and overall revenue to increase. We have recently appointed new head for this business as we pursue our growth strategy. Nippon India Digital Innovation Fund, which was announced during the bilateral discussions between Prime Minister of India and Prime Minister of Japan on the sidelines of G20 summit in Osaka. It is anchored by large Japanese investors, institutional investors. We are in the process of launching its successive fund, which will invest in early-stage technology VC funds, along with direct investments in early to growth stage startups. As Indian economy grows, inflows into country will continue to rise, and your company would like to play a key role in that. We continue to leverage Nippon Life's influence to create expressways globally. Our endeavor is to provide access of Indian markets to the global investors. Your company manages offshore funds and distribution through its subsidiary in Singapore and also its representative office in Dubai. Your company has also notable international tie-ups in this segment, which will help us in our future growth. Now that I've taken you through different business lines, I would like to spend some time highlighting to you some critical aspects that are overarching across your company. Let me start with the investment process. Investment remains core to our business, and we'll continue to build institutionalized and robust investment processes as we focus on being a faceless organization. Our focus continues to be strong on research capability and risk management. Your company also benefits from sharing of best practices from Nippon Life Insurance Company. Working closely with Nippon Life, we have introduced 14 factor analysis and PDCA approach to our investment process. We also have experts from Japan who help us to institutionalize these processes. We have a strong investment team, with a strength of 60 members having a cumulative experience of 900 years. Our CIOs have been with the company and have an average tenure of 19 years. We have dedicated teams for credit research, real estate, and venture capital. Human capital continues to be our greatest asset. Our focus remains on developing in-house talent to ready employees for larger roles and also adding fresh blood where required. We continue to focus on gender diversity, in last three years, our gender diversity has increased from 17% to 20%. We will continue to focus on personal and professional development of our employees. Further, I would like to acknowledge the role of the families of our employees who provide them adequate support to enable the employees to give their best at work. As a responsible corporate citizen, your company continues to move forward in its journey towards achieving ESG goals. Our parent, Nippon Life Insurance Company, has been one of the initial signatories to UN PRI. Your company also became UN PRI signatory in June 2021 and implemented various initiatives to institutionalize its ESG vision. We are moving towards zero carbon emission entity. Through our stewardship code we endeavor to protect the interest of our minority shareholders by actively voting in our investee companies. Keeping the industry trends in mind, NAM India is dedicated towards remaining ahead of the curve and has taken various initiatives in enhancing its performance, both at operational and investment level. CSR objectives of your company are aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals. In FY 2023, your company contributed INR 14 crore towards various initiatives, and over the last five years has contributed INR 100 crore. Your company engaged with reputed institutions like Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Indian Army, CRY, Olympic Gold Quest, as mentioned in my opening remarks. We touched lives of more than 30,000 households in FY 2023 through these initiatives and have overall touched lives of more than 3.8 lakh over a period of time. I would now like to present before you the key financial highlights for FY 2023. We continue our focus on profitable growth. In FY 2023, your company's net profit was INR 723 crores. We also continue to build operational efficiency. Total operating expenses as a proportion of AUM have remained stable at 20 basis points year on year. In line with our philosophy of sharing profits with our 1.8 lakh shareholders, the board of directors have a stated dividend policy to distribute 60%-90% of our profits. Over the years, company paid dividend consistently in line with the policy, and for FY 2023, your company has proposed its highest ever payout of INR 11.5 per share at a payout ratio of 100%. As I come to the conclusion of our presentation, investor first will remain the key theme for us as we aim to expand our business both domestically and internationally. We will continue to do what is right for the investor with sustainable profit growth for our shareholders, keeping risk management, institutionalization of processes, and highest standards of corporate governance at the center of our strategy. Overall, NAM India remains well positioned to capture the opportunity going forward. With this, I would like to end my presentation, and I now hand over the proceedings back to the chairperson. Thank you, Mr. Sikka. Before I proceed with the business of the day and start inviting questions or feedbacks from the shareholders, may I request Mr. Tomohiro Yao, a nominee director of Nippon Life Insurance, to say a few words. Dear shareholders, I am delighted to speak to our esteemed shareholders during Nippon Life India Asset Management 28th Annual General Meeting. If I may briefly introduce myself. My name is Tomohiro Yao. I am based in Singapore and working as Regional CEO for Asia Pacific and Head of India at Nippon Life Insurance Company. On behalf of Nippon Life, I'd like to briefly talk about our expectations in the Indian market and our commitment to NAM India. Nippon Life has been committed to the Indian market, which has a high potential for stable growth in the long term. Especially, the asset management industry is still in a high growth phase so far, driven by huge under-penetration. NAM India is the largest equity value holding in any offshore subsidiary in the asset management business of Nippon Life Group. I appreciate that NAM India is one of the highest contributors to our group international business profit amongst all our international group companies. NAM India is the largest foreign asset management company in India. We are delighted with NAM India's successful journey so far. In the meantime, Nippon Life has been supporting NAM India's offshore activity by leveraging our global footprint and asset management operations. We will continuously explore more opportunities through our alliances to get global allocation into India and create avenues for Indian investors to invest abroad. Nippon Life has been supporting NAM India management team by sending experts with rich experience in investment and risk management fields. Along with NAM India, we continue strengthening the risk and investment management processes by sharing and implementing best practices from Nippon Life's long-term experiences. By providing those practices, we would like to support NAM India, NAM India's initiatives and future growth and help NAM India achieve better performance and outcomes for investors from now on. Thank you very much for listening. I now hand over to proceedings to the company secretary. As per the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI listing regulations which provides for electronic voting, the company had provided the facility of remote e-voting from July 8, 2023, 9:00 A.M. onwards to July 11, 2023, 5:00 P.M. It may please be noted that the voting rights of the members are in proportion to the number of shares held by them as on the cutoff date, which was July 5, 2023. The facility of voting at the meeting is also being made available to the members who are attending the AGM and who have not already cast their votes by remote e-voting. Members are requested to go back on the NSDL e-voting page and click on the EVEN number of the company to cast vote while watching the AGM proceedings simultaneously. Your board of directors have appointed Mr. Mukesh Siroya of Messrs M. Siroya & Company. Siroya & Co., company secretaries, as the scrutinizer to scrutinize the voting process. Since this AGM is being held through video conference and the resolutions mentioned in the notice convening this AGM have already been put to vote through e-voting, therefore there will be no proposing and seconding with respect to the proposed resolutions at this meeting. I will now request the chairperson to take over and proceed with the rest of the proceedings. Thank you, Niloufer Irani. I will now proceed with the agenda in accordance with the notice of this AGM. The ordinary business items are listed as agenda item numbers one to four, and special business items are listed as agenda item numbers five to six of the notice. Item number one is to consider and adopt the audited standalone financial statement of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, and the reports of the Board of Directors and that of the auditors thereon. B, the audited consolidated financial statement of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, and the report of the auditors thereon. Item number two is to confirm the payment of interim dividend of INR 4 per equity share and to declare a final dividend of INR 7.50 per equity share for the financial year 2022, 2023. Item number three is to appoint a director in place of Mr. Tomohiro Yao, director identification number 08429687 who retires by rotation in terms of Section 152 of the Companies Act, 2013 and being eligible offers himself for reappointment. Item number four is to reappoint the statutory auditors of the company and to fix their remuneration. The next item of the notice pertains to my appointment as a non-executive independent director wherein I am deemed interested. Therefore, I now vacate the chair and request General Ved Prakash Malik to act as chairman for this item. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sinha. I request the members to consider item number 5 relating to the appointment of Mr. Upendra Kumar Sinha as a non-executive independent director. I now request Mr. Upendra Kumar Sinha to take the chair and take the proceedings forward. Thank you, General Malik. Item number six is the appointment of Mr. Hiroki Yamauchi as the non-executive non-independent director. I now request the company secretary to call out the names of the members one after the other who have pre-registered themselves for seeking clarifications and for the purposes of offering their valuable comments and suggestions. Shareholders are requested to note that first we will take all the questions from the shareholders and those will be answered by the ED and CEO at the end. I would call upon the first shareholder, Mr. Santosh Kumar Saraf. माननीय अध्यक्ष जी, उपस्थित निदेशक मंडल के सदस्यगण, अधिकारीगण और कर्मचारीगण और मेरे सभी भाइयों बहनों जो आज हम video conference through present है। मैं Santosh Kumar Saraf कलकत्ता से आप सभी को नमस्कार करता हूं। आशा करता हूं आप इस समय अच्छे स्वस्थ होंगे। Sir, मैं management को धन्यवाद देता हूं highest dividend साढ़े ₹11 देने के लिए sir. और हर साल आप dividend बढ़ाए जा रहे हैं और काफी अच्छा yield आ रहा है। इस साल अगर yield का calculation करूं तो काफी अच्छा market value पे yield आ रहा है आपका। ये काफी अच्छा है sir. Sir, management और उनकी team को और खासकर employees को धन्यवाद देना चाहूंगा जो awards और recognition हमें मिले हैं। Kincentric Best Employers Club Award उसके लिए मैं धन्यवाद दूंगा। साथ में Best Employer Award भी 2022 जो हमको मिला है उसके लिए भी मैं और उनसे प्रार्थना करूंगा इसी तरह मेहनत करिए तो हमें और भी award मिलेंगे। क्योंकि हमारा management अच्छा है, हमारी team अच्छी है तो award हमारे दरवाजे पे खड़े हैं, सिर्फ उसको घर में घुमाना बाकी है। Sir, काफी अच्छा आपने presentation दिया है Sikka जी और इतना अच्छा कहा गया प्रश्न तो कोई रहते नहीं है। फिर भी आदत से लाचार इस एक दो प्रश्न हम आपसे करते हैं sir. एक तो 3 करोड़ 73 लाख total investor आपने बताया है sir. इसमें कितनी % अपनी है और जो % present है इसको ज्यादा improve करने के लिए क्या technology आपने launch कर रहे हैं और क्या आपका future plan artificial intelligence की help लेना है क्योंकि future जो है वो artificial intelligence का है। और मैं समझता हूं कि इसकी अब company को काफी जरूरत पड़ने लगी। इसके बारे में क्या विचार है ये बताने की चेष्टा करिएगा। एक दूसरा sir जो offshore fund है सिर्फ करीबन ₹9,000 करोड़ से नीचे है। इसको भी ज्यादा-ज्यादा अपने बढ़ाने के लिए जिससे अपने पे aim ज्यादा भी अपना बाहर में काम भी बढ़ेगा और बाहर में नाम भी बढ़ेगा। ऐसे Nippon Life Japan में काफी नामी है, India में भी है लेकिन फिर भी हम चाहेंगे offshore fund काफी हो। उसके लिए कुछ नई scheme launch करते हैं या कोई नई technique launch करते हैं आप। उस पर भी विचार करिएगा sir. Sir, समय तो बहुत है लेकिन मैं दो request करूंगा सिक्का जी। एक तो आप अपनी जो industry है, ये mutual fund industry, service industry है। इसमें female employee की संख्या बहुत कम है। ये शायद ठीक नहीं। क्या आपको मालूम हो इस industry में female employee जो होते हैं काफी अच्छे होते हैं, उनकी contribution काफी अच्छी होती है। Business के बारे में, business collection करने के बारे में, plus में जो distributor है उनको अपनी तरफ समझा के business लाने के लिए attract करना, मतलब convince करना। तो मैं चाहूंगा इसकी female की percentage बढ़ाई जाए जो कि अभी सिर्फ 19% आपके यहां है। 18.97% को बढ़ाने की चेष्टा करें। दूसरा, sir, बड़ा दुख होता है सिक्का जी जब देखता हूं कि इतने बड़े concern में 1000 employee में एक भी disabled employee को आपने मौका नहीं दिया है। मैं समझता हूं कि operations जहां होते हैं, जहां आपको inquiry जारी होती है, जहां आपको customer के प्रश्न का जवाब देना पड़ता है, वहां कम से कम जो disabled employee हैं उनको मौका दिया जा सकता है। जिससे वह dependent अपने पर हो, अपनी family को भी हो और उनके मन में गौरव भी हो कि हम disabled हैं तो क्या हुआ, हम भी कुछ करने लायक हैं। और ज़्यादा समय नहीं लूंगा। काफी अच्छा आपने performance दिया है। काफी अच्छी बातें आपने बताई हैं और मैं जानता हूं कि आपकी leadership के अंदर में जब तक आप CEO हैं तब तक हमारी Nippon India आगे ही बढ़ेगी और आगे बढ़ती जा रही है। यह दिख रहा है, sir, क्योंकि करीबन कितने करोड़ का अभी investment है। देखिए आप अपने पास में है जबकि आप starting में थे तो कुछ नहीं था। तो मैं चाहूंगा आपकी leadership में इसी तरह हमारी company उन्नति करे और आपकी leadership में आपकी team जो है, जितने भी हमारे कर्मचारी हैं, जितने भी हमारे जो marketing के लोग हैं वो भी इसी तरह बढ़ें और future में अगले साल जब AGM में मिलेंगे अपने लोग तो मैं सोचूंगा कि और भी award लेकर हम आएंगे। और रही sir AGM की meeting, मैं सोचता हूं AGM की meeting काफी अच्छी। आप भी देख रहे हैं कि आपके director Japan से attend कर रहे हैं। कोई Delhi से, आपको अपनी जगह से बाहर से attend कर, घर से attend कर रहे हैं, sir। यह possible है सिर्फ AGM के कारण। इसलिए आपसे हाथ जोड़ के request है अगले साल मान लीजिए आप AGM meeting करने में मजबूरी नहीं होती है, physical meeting करनी पड़ती है तो मैं चाहूंगा 10 से 15-20 minutes AGM के लिए रखिए। Digital use में प्रवेश करके, आपने कहा कि 10% more transaction आपके digitally हो रहे हैं, sir। तो हम क्यों नहीं meeting भी digitally करें? इसलिए BC का जी दीजी करें जिससे मैं कोलकाता से रहने वाला shareholder plus distributor भी हूं आपका तो अपने मन की भावना प्रकट कर दूं। जय हिंद, जय भारत, नमस्कार। एक बार secretary और उनकी team को भी धन्यवाद देता हूं। उनकी काफी अच्छी coordination relation activity Niloufer की काफी अच्छी है तो उनको भी मेरे तरफ से धन्यवाद। नमस्कार। Our next speaker is Mr. Aspi Bhesania. Chairman sir, can you see me and hear me? Yes, I can see you and hear you. Please go ahead. Sir, I am Aspi from Bombay. Sir, I welcome Mr. Hiroki Yamauchi. I also welcome Mr. U.K. Sinha as a Director, Independent Director, and Chairman. I hope he changes his attitude from public to private sector. In India, there is a vast difference in the way public and private sectors perform. Sir, coming to the performance, we are almost stagnating in Q4 year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Also for the full year, there is a slight reduction. Where do you see growth coming from? Sir, since our parent is in insurance, can one of our subsidiaries not go into insurance? Sir, out of EPS of 11.53, dividend is 11.50, 100% of PAT. Sir, don't you want to preserve some cash for future like acquiring another AMC or something like that? Sir, 3% of our population is investing in markets. That's due to instability of government policies and milking of investors in stock market. When STT was introduced, FM had said categorically that STT is in lieu of long and short term capital gains. Thereafter, both the gains were also taxed directly. Thus resulting in double taxation. Sir, top 10 non-promoter shareholders names should be given in the annual report. Sir, page 132 of the annual report, unclaimed dividends have been disclosed. Sir, amounts are big and we are only current shareholders since we came with an IPO only recently. How come such big amounts are lying as unclaimed? I would request the company secretary to take personal interest in unclaimed dividends since this belongs to the shareholders. Sir, KFintech simply sends reminders and when shareholders try to claim the dividend, they create lots of problems. Sir, I am talking from my personal experience. Sir, they never mention the name of the person who is writing the letter. No phone number, no email ID. Email in general is there, but there is no response. If I call also, recorded message comes saying dial one for this, two for this. Sir, I would request you to continue with hybrid meetings when physical meetings start. Sir, thank you very much and all the best for the future. Thank you. Next speaker is Mr. Yusuf Yunus Rangwala. Sir, very good evening, good morning sir, good afternoon sir. Sir, [Foreign language]? [Foreign language] Please continue. Yes Sir, very good afternoon Sir. I am very thankful to our Company Secretary, Nilufer Irani madam for giving me a chance. [Foreign language] Sir service Sir very excellent. Sir, as a Chairman speech, [Foreign language] presentation that was very excellent and I am very happy to be a Metrovan business. Sir, I would like to know there are so many other companies same business. Sir, what competition we are facing? Being a Japanese company, first I welcome our Japanese people. [Foreign language] Sir all the Board of Directors of Japanese people, I welcome Sir on the Board of Directors. I also support this physical, this video conference meeting Sir. You please keep a video conference if next year possible before the Diwali, if you can possibly, if you can keep a small get together. This is my humble request. Sir, annual report printed on email that is around 250 pages, very excellent, very colorful and very knowledgeable. I request to the madam to send me annual copies if possible sir. Nothing more to add. I wish our company, I would like to know total number of staff. [Foreign language] how many agent we having sir? I would like to know total number of agent in this business. As you mentioned we are the India insurance. Sir, what, as a dividend is given INR 4 interim, final INR 7 which makes to INR 11.50. That is a very excellent, very handsome. Sir, this is one company which pays our shareholder excellent dividend. I salute you for the excellent dividend sir. Nothing more to add. I thank our Company Secretary and sir also I thank our Japanese people. Sir, this is a Japanese company sir. We are very happy to have our people of Japanese technology. If possible you to give us Diwali small get together sir. Nothing more to add. I end my speech thanking you sir. Jai Hind sir, Jai Hind. [Foreign language]. Jai Hind. Next speaker is Mr. Saurabh Paul. Good afternoon all. Yes sir, you can proceed. Good afternoon all directors and shareholders. My question is for Mr. Sikka. Sundeep, you mentioned in your speech about how you are leveraging the support from Nippon Life Japan. As I understand, many foreign players had not been successful in the asset management space in India and had quit. How is Nippon Life different from other foreign players and what difference do they make in your operations? Thank you. Next speaker is Mr. Rajendra Seth. Mr. Rajendra request you to unmute yourself and ask your question. Hello, hello. Yeah, we can hear you. Hello. हाँ sir। Chairman श्री, management team और shareholder भाइयों, मैं राजेंद्र सेठाणे से बोल रहा हूं। आपने जो presentation किया sir, बहुत ही अच्छा। इसमें हर एक details उसमें आ गई और मैं management का आभार मानता हूं। और second thing, आपने बहुत ही अच्छा dividend दिया। हमारा company का growth भी बहुत ही अच्छा है sir। तो मैंने तो जब से start, IPO से मेरे पास share है और शुरुआत में तो मैं खुद tension में आ गया था कि investment मेरा सही जगह है कि क्या है। पर sir बाद में मेरे को लगा, नहीं नहीं, मेरा investment एकदम सही जगह है और मैं management की मेहनत से मैं बहुत ही संतुष्ट हूं sir। और हमारा secretarial department भी बहुत अच्छी तरह काम करता है और investor service दे रहा है, तो उसको भी आभार मानता हूं। खाली sir एक ही question था कि अभी देखो, India के अंदर sir rural growth बहुत हो रहा है, तो हम उधर present होने के लिए, क्या कुछ मतलब ज्यादा present होने के लिए क्या कुछ सोचा है sir? बाकी तो mutual fund industry, AMC और उसका तो growth और यह बीमा उसका बहुत ही अच्छा है और हमारी company बहुत ही प्रभाव, मतलब बहुत ही सुंदर कारीगरी करता है, तो मैं management को बहुत ही धन्यवाद देता हूं। Dividend भी बहुत ही अच्छा दिया। बस बाकी कुछ बोलने का नहीं है और खाली एक ही छोटा सा श्लोक बोल कर मैं मेरी वाणी को विराम करूंगा। या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शान्तिरूपे नमस्तुते। नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमः नमः। मैं हर एक resolution में पूरा support देता हूं और हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं देता हूं। मेरे को बोलने का मौका दिया। धन्यवाद। Next speaker is Mr. Anil Parekh. Mr. Anil Parekh has not joined yet. Can we move to the next speaker shareholder? Sure moving on. Next speaker is Ankur Chanda. Hello, am I audible? Yeah, you are audible. Yes sir, you are. Good afternoon sir. Sir मैं यह कहना चाह रहा हूं कि हम 2017 में IPO लाए थे और listing के बाद आप ही देखिए कि हम आज भी अपने IPO share price के आसपास ही हैं जो कि अभी तक तो फिर हम उससे नीचे ही थे। लेकिन अब उससे ऊपर हैं। लेकिन हम ऐसा क्यों हैं? क्या investor का हमारे पर भरोसा नहीं है? क्योंकि sir इससे यह लगता है कि जो management है वह investor friendly, shareholder friendly नहीं है। तो sir कुछ ऐसा करो कि shareholder friendly, investor friendly बने sir जिससे कि return मिले, क्योंकि company ने return नहीं देनी। मुझे पता है company ने अपनी performance देनी है लेकिन return तो investor को देनी है ना sir। लेकिन अगर investor को company पर इस तरह भरोसा नहीं आएगा और आप लोग उसको भरोसा नहीं दिलाएंगे तो return कैसे मिलेगी sir? छह साल में हमें क्या return मिली है, अगर आप यह देखेंगे, तो मुझे पता नहीं क्या मतलब, जो भी return है, लेकिन हमें क्या return मिली। बस यही कहना था, sir, इस पर थोड़ा ध्यान दें। Next speaker is Mr. Bhavish Soni. नमस्ते esteemed board of directors. My question to Sundeep जी is these days everyone is trying to leverage digitization in their business. In your presentation also we saw strong digital side of the company. Can you elaborate on the company's digital strategies and their impact on customers and business? Thank you. Next speaker is Mr. Mitra Bakshi. Good afternoon, MD, CEO. Just want to know the new schemes in launching in the future and role to be among the biggest asset in the management marketing firms and what is our claim settlement ratio? Thank you, sir. Next speaker is Mr. Vinay Bhide. Hello, are you able to hear me? Yes sir. Yes please. Yes, I am Vinay Bhide you know a company shareholder. I am speaking from Mumbai. Chairman Mr. Sinha, Executive Director and CEO, Mr. Sundeep Sikka, directors present at, you know, today's AGM, company executives, shareholders, good afternoon to all of you. I have gone through the annual report. I have also, you know, intently, you know, heard, you know, both the chairman's statement as well as Mr. Sundeep Sikka's, you know, presentation. I'm extremely happy to note that Mr. Sundeep Sikka has been steadily, you know, leading, you know, the company, you know, through all these years. I am extremely happy to note, you know, not only the company's performance, but also, you know, how we stand, you know, in terms of, you know, the standing in the industry also. 2, 3, you know, observations, you know, were very, you know, useful as far as participation in this meeting is concerned. First thing is that, you know, 1 out of every 3 mutual fund, you know, shareholders, you know, investors are, you know, Nippon Life, you know, investors. That is a key takeaway. Second thing is that, you know, we hold 36%, you know, market share of the industry. That is also, you know, a key highlight. Most important of all, as you mentioned, Mr. Sikka, that, you know, we have moved in the asset management ranks from number 6 to number 4. These are feathers in the cap. I have gone through the annual report, you know, I find that, you know, we are doing very steadily. I find no reason, you know, to take common time and ask any questions. I will only close, you know, with best wishes, you know, to you, the board of directors and the employees. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Next speaker is Mr. Mohit Bhansali. Good afternoon, everyone. Your company has been one of the few non-bank sponsored AMCs among the top five AMCs. I would like to compliment the company for your success. However, several more players have entered the industry in recent time or are in the process of launching operation. What are the company's view with regard to the increased competition and your strategy to tackle that? Thank you. The last speaker would be Mr. Ranjan Kumar. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for an excellent presentation. My question is to Mr. Sundeep Sikka. Mr. Sundeep Sikka, you know, Nippon is a leader in the passive business, despite being a large active player. Do these two businesses tend to compete with each other? How do we see the company grow in both these verticals? Thank you. I'd like to address all the questions to our esteemed shareholders. First I want to thank all the shareholders for having trust in the company and the management team and your kind words. I'll try to answer most of the question. I'll try to club some of these together. Starting with Mr. Sharaf, you know, thank you very much, I think, for your kind words. I think we continue our journey, and for us, our focus will remain on retail business. We'll continue moving into smaller cities and towns. We have been in this journey over the last few years. Digital and AI has already been a very important part of our strategy. Today 57% of the new business that we are doing is happening through digital. We will continue. We are also using artificial intelligence to understand investor behavior and trying to look at other areas where artificial intelligence can be incorporated. To your question on woman employees, I think I'm happy to share with you our gender diversity has gone up from 17% to 20%. We continue focusing on the inclusive growth for all our employees. Yes, I think, as mentioned on page 90 of our balance sheet, as on date today, we do not have any disabled employee. I think we continue looking. I think from our perspective, I think wherever we can help any disabled employee, I think we will be able to give an opportunity to work in the company. Like you, we also look for an opportunity to have a physical meeting, and wherever time permits or the situation permits, we like to have a physical meeting so that then we can meet you personally. As far as the offshore business is concerned, we continue, as mentioned by our colleague, Tomohiro Yao, company and Nippon Life continues to focus on getting more foreign flows into India. Over the last few years, we have seen some limited success, but this will continue to be the focus of the company going forward. Mr. Saraf, I also am reminded of a question that you asked last year about what is the trajectory of the digital and how much can digital contribute. Last time I couldn't give you an answer because we knew directionally it is important, but happy to share with you, as I mentioned, 57% of new business has been done through digital platforms. Mr. Aspi, I think I will 2, 3 questions which were there. One is, I will not be able to give forward-looking statement, but as I mentioned in my comments, we will continue focusing on various aspects of business and continue our focus on profitable growth. Our focus remains going to smaller cities and towns where we believe there's going to be a lot of wealth creation in real Bharat. I think as a company, we have the highest market share in the beyond top 30 cities. You mentioned about EPS and the cash in hand. The board continuously keep evaluating opportunities of how the money that we have in the company can be invested, both for internal growth and also for future acquisitions. Your feedback for KFintech is well taken. I think we'll try to share this feedback with them. Mr. Yusuf Yunus Rangwala, I think it's to your question, we continue focusing, I think, on smaller cities and towns. I think the number that we have at this point of time, 91,000 distributors in smaller cities and towns who are trying to address the investors in these cities. We also believe, I think a lot of as I mentioned earlier, there's going to be a lot of growth in smaller cities and towns, and we believe as a company, I think we need to play a bigger role in financial inclusion, and our focus will continue on that. Regarding the Diwali, I think we'll definitely see if we can meet up before Diwali, and we'll be equally happy to meet you. The question from Saurabh. I think we are happy to share with you, we are a part of. Nippon Life is a 133-year-old global company, and it has experience of working across the world. As mentioned in my earlier speech, Nippon Life continues helping us to grow and institutionalize our risk management and other areas of investment management. As mentioned by Tomohiro Yao, also, we are trying to work together to see how we can get global allocations into India. Having said that, I will I would also like to highlight, since you mentioned what other foreign asset management companies, I will not be able to comment about others. I think from our perspective, we believe the key is localization and execution. The day-to-day operations of the company are run by the management team under the supervision and the guidance of the board. We keep evaluating what are some of the best practices from Nippon Life Group and try to localize them and implement them in India. Mr. Seth, our focus continues as mentioned earlier. First to your question on dividend. I think, Board has a stated policy of sharing 60%-90% of the profits as dividend and which we have been doing over the years. To your second question, rural markets, we are the market leaders in smaller cities and towns, but still we believe there's a lot to be done. Our focus remains both on smaller cities and bigger cities. If you were to see, when going forward, with the advent of technology and digital, we believe we'll be able to penetrate these markets even further. Mr. Ankur Chanda, I think from our you mentioned about the IPO and the share price. I will not be able to comment anything on the share price. From the company continues to focus on execution, trying to go deep into smaller cities and towns. De-risked business model, the profitability of the focus remains on having a stable and a sustainable profit over a longer period of time. I think over the last five years, the company's profit continues to increase. We would again like to say, share price is not something which is in our control. Our control, what we control is execution, and we'll continue focusing on that. Mr. Bhavish. Bhavesh. Digital, your question on digital. Digital remains a very, very important part of our strategy. As mentioned, we are doing roughly, I mean, 57% of our new business is through our digital, through digital purchase. Our philosophy on digital remains 3 Fs, which is having friendly, futuristic, and frictionless digital infrastructure. And I think we continue investing. We clearly believe while, I think, for long term, it's not only to get business but also for operational efficiency, digital will play a very important role, and we'll keep investing in digital. Mr. Bakshi, I think to your question on insurance. I think as a company, your company has a SEBI license of operating in asset management. The SEBI rules and regulations do not allow us to get into any other business activity. Mr. Vinay Bhide, thank you so much for your kind words. From our perspective, I think the fact that It's an honor and a privilege that one-third of all mutual fund investors in India trust your company. We will continue penetrating more in smaller cities and towns and trying to make mutual funds more a household name. Our vision will be that every Indian household should be a mutual fund investor. Mr. Mohit, to your question of new players. I think we still believe India is very highly under-penetrated, with only 3% of the population investing in mutual funds. I think it's good if more mutual fund companies and asset management companies come, and I think they help us to grow the market. Having said that, for success of any business, there are few things which are critical. One is basically having a strong risk management, and the other one is going to be execution. As a company, our focus remains on both risk management and execution, and we welcome more companies coming into asset management industry because it will help to increase the pie. Mr. Ranjan Kumar, I think your question on active versus passive. As mentioned in my last slide, I think our philosophy is investor first. We believe it's our duty to offer to the investor what is right for him. That in line with those principles, we'll, we acquired ETF business and we believe there is a space for both. There are investors who will be investing in active. There will be investors who will be active investing in passive. We do not see this, one versus the other. We believe both will find space in the portfolio of the investors and as a, as a basis that your company will keep investing, in both active and passive going forward. I've tried to make an attempt to address all the questions of our esteemed shareholders. In case there is anything that was unintendedly missed out, or there are any additional queries, pleased to offer you the answer. I would now hand over the proceedings back to the chairperson. Thank you, Sundeep. Dear shareholders, please note that e-voting facility will remain open for the next 15 minutes to enable those members who have not yet casted their vote and would like to cast their vote now. I now authorize the company secretary to conduct the voting procedure and thereafter to declare the results of the voting in accordance with the prescribed procedure. Please note that the result of the voting, along with the scrutinizer's report, will be intimated to the stock exchanges and will also be uploaded on the website of the company, https://nipponindiaim.com and the website of NSDL, that is www.evoting.nsdl.com, within 48 hours of the conclusion of the AGM. The business of this AGM having been completed, I now announce that this meeting stands concluded. I heartily thank all the esteemed shareholders for their active participation and for making valuable suggestions. I also take this opportunity to wish all of you and your respective families best of health. Thank you.