Star, then zero on your Touch-Tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Meghna Luthra from InCred Equities. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Mana, and good evening, everyone. On behalf of InCred Equities, I welcome all to Nippon Life India Asset Management's fourth quarter for 2025 earnings conference call. We have along with us Mr. Sundeep Sikka, Executive Director and CEO, along with the senior management team. We are thankful to the management for allowing us this opportunity. I would now like to hand it over to Mr. Sundeep Sikka for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thanks. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 FY25 earnings conference call. We have with us CFO Parag, Chief Business Officer of the Strategy, Deputy CFO Amol, Chief Digital Officer Arpan, Head ETF Arun, Head AIF Ashish, Deputy Head AIF Ashwin, and Matsui San, nominee of Nippon Life Japan. I would like to share a few highlights of our performance, and post that, I will hand it over to Parag, our CFO, to speak in greater detail on the recent industry trends as well as our performance, post which we'll move to Q&A.
Coming to the key highlight, I would like to start by mentioning that Nippon Life India Asset Management is the fastest-growing AMC in the top 10 AMCs on one-year, two-year, and three-year basis, and we have also had the highest increase in AMC share in the industry over the last two-year basis.
Further, our equity sales market share and SIP market share both improved quarter on quarter and remain well above our equity market share. We achieved a high single-digit market share in terms of equity net sales, while our SIP market share has been greater than 10% in March 2025. SIP market share has effectively doubled in three years from 5.15% in March 2020 to 10.6% in March 2025.
10.15%.
Sorry, 10.16% in March 2025, and this would form a strong foundation for our future growth. On the financial front, NAM India has achieved its highest-ever annual profit after tax INR 12.86 billion, a growth of 16% year-on-year, as well as the highest-ever operating profit of INR 14.04 billion and growth of 47% year-on-year. We have a stated dividend policy to distribute 60%-90% of our profits to shareholders.
For FY2025, the Board of Directors have declared a dividend payout of INR 18 per share, that is 91% of net profit. This includes the proposed final dividend of INR 10 per share. I would like to address the recent cyber attack on our IT infrastructure, which we notified to the exchanges on April 10, 2025. As a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of malware, all systems were isolated or powered down as soon as the threat alerts were received from monitoring systems.
All critical applications have now been restored. The fund management system was restored the next day morning itself. The mobile application and the websites are also back to normal. During this period, customers were redirected to alternate channels, which remained completely unaffected, and hence, there was minimal business impact due to this. We believe the company and the investor data is fully safe and secure. As mentioned in the past, we will continue to focus on our non-mutual fund business.
In line with this, to offer Japanese investors greater access to Indian capital markets through the NISA scheme in Japan, we launched Nippon India ETF Nifty 50 BeES Fund, which will feed into the Nifty India ETF, which will feed into Nifty India ETF 50 BeES. This launch is in collaboration with our partner, Nissei Asset Management Corporation Japan, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Life Japan, which has launched Nissei India Equity Fund in Japan to feed into this GIF fund.
This comes after our first GIFT fund, Nippon India Large-Cap GIFT, which we launched in January 2025 to provide global investors an access to our flagship large-cap fund. Our future product pipeline includes long-short funds, our second fund of fund, which will be investing in India-focused venture funds, and a few more. Lastly, on the AIF front, we have recently appointed industry veteran Mr.
Andrew Holland as the head of the asset class, and we believe that this offering represents significant growth potential going forward. In conclusion, I would like to state FY25 has been another strong year for NAM India, and we are hopeful of sustaining this in the years to come. Now, I will hand over the call to Parag for further details on industry and our performance.
Thank you, Sandeep. Good evening, everybody. Let me start off with the markets. Equity market in Q4 FY2025 witnessed a drop from prior quarter levels. The Nifty declined by 0.5% quarter on quarter, while the Nifty mid-cap and small-cap indices declined by 9.6% and 14.9%, respectively. RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%, while the 10-year G-Sec yield decreased by 18 basis points quarter on quarter to 6.58%. On a year-over-year basis, the Nifty grew 5.3%, while the mid and small-cap indices grew 7.6% and 5.4%, respectively.
Coming to data on the mutual fund industry, industry quarterly average AUM grew by 24.6% year over year but declined 1.7% quarter on quarter in Q4 FY2025 to INR 67.4 trillion. The share of equity in overall AUM declined quarter on quarter, ending at 60% for Q4 FY2025 from 60.8% in Q3 FY2025. Now, moving to industry growth, the equity category, excluding index fund and arbitrage fund, witnessed a gross inflow of INR 2.13 trillion and a net inflow of INR 1.04 trillion. Both gross and net flows were lower quarter on quarter.
Categories with the highest inflows were sectoral thematic funds, flexi-cap, and small-cap funds. Moving on to SIP, investment via SIP route further increased, with the SIP contribution for the quarter being INR 783 billion, up 37% YOY and 2% quarter on quarter. Monthly SIP flows in March 2025 stood at INR 259 billion, only 2% below the all-time high of INR 265 billion achieved in December 2024. The fixed income category witnessed a net outflow of INR 809 billion in the quarter. The ETF category had a net inflow of INR 216 billion.
At the end of the quarter, units invested in the mutual fund industry increased to 54.2 million, that is an increase of 22% year-over-year. Now, moving to our business performance, we closed the quarter with the total asset under management of INR 6.54 trillion. This includes mutual fund, managed accounts, offshore funds, and gifts. Our mutual fund quarterly average AUM grew 29.2% year-over-year to reach INR 5.57 trillion.
We were the fastest-growing AMC in the top 10 players in FY2025 and had the highest increase in quarterly average AUM market share on a two-year basis among all AMCs. I would like now to share a few key highlights for the quarter. Starting with market share, our market share increased 30 basis points year-over-year to 8.26%. Our equity market share increased by 10 basis points year-over-year to 6.86%. Excluding arbitrage, equity market share increased by 22 basis points year-over-year to 6.92%.
The share of equity AUM in our overall AUM decreased by 1.3% quarter on quarter to 49.8% for Q4 FY2025. We achieved a high single-digit market share in net sales in the equity and hybrid segment in Q4 FY2025. However, excluding NFOs, our market share would be in the double digits. We continue to have the largest investor base in the mutual fund industry with 20.8 million unique investors. We are humbled to have over one in three mutual fund investors invest with us.
During the quarter, we also completed an NFO of the Nippon India Active Momentum Fund. As at the end of the quarter, the AUM of this fund stood at INR 1.2 billion. I would also like to touch upon some of the important aspects of our SIP growth. I'm happy to share that there has been continued momentum in our systematic flows, which has led to an increase in market share. SIP market share increased by 17 basis points to 10.16% over December 2024 to March 2025.
Our monthly systematic book rose by 37% year-over-year to INR 31.8 billion for March 2025. This resulted in an annualized systematic book of INR 382 billion. Moving on briefly to the ETF segment, we continue to be one of the largest ETF players with AUM of INR 1.54 trillion and a market share of 19.07%, which increased by 236 basis points year-over-year. Our share in the industry ETF volume is 53%. We also have a 53% share of ETF volumes on NSE and BSE. Our ETF average daily volume across key funds remained far higher than the rest of the industry.
Moving on to our digital franchise, digital purchase transactions rose to 3.54 million in Q4 FY25, up 49% YOY. Digital business contributed 74% of the total new purchase transactions in Q4 FY25. For FY25, digital purchase transactions stood at 14.4 million, a two-fold increase compared to FY24. By harnessing the power of digital innovation and executing a well-crafted strategy, Nippon Life India Asset Management has breached an inflection point, achieving accelerated growth, enhanced efficiency, and a distinct competitive edge.
Nippon Life India Asset Management's best-in-class digital assets, strong digital distribution framework, and efficient campaign management strategies reinforce its leadership in the online space. Now, I would like to briefly update you on our subsidiaries, namely the AIF and Singapore subsidiaries. Starting off with AIF, under Nippon India AIF, we offer category two and category three AIF, and have raised cumulative commitments of INR 74.1 billion across various schemes.
FY25 marked our highest-ever incremental AUM fund raise of INR 13 billion, which is 2.2x of commitment raised in FY24. During the quarter, we launched our 10th fund under our long-only equity series. Fund raising is currently underway for two of our listed equity AIFs, performing credit AIF and direct VC fund. Fund deployment across all strategies was robust in Q4 FY25, with eight active investments in performing credit and full deployment in our tech VC efforts across 14 funds, with underlying exposure to 380-plus companies.
The teams across all functions have been strengthened as well. On the offshore front, we continue to witness good equity inflows in the quarter from various international geographies. Offshore AUM grew 13% YOY to INR 152 billion, with our UCITS equity fund reaching an AUM of $483 million. We continue to expand our footprint in Japanese institutions and retail space in conjunction with Nissei Asset Management Corporation Japan.
We also continue to expand our footprint in new geographies in the European region. Now, on to our financial performance. For Q4 FY2025, revenues stood at INR 5.67 billion, up 21% YOY. Other incomes stood at INR 0.23 billion, down 75% YOY and up 50% quarter on quarter. Operating expenses stood at INR 2.12 billion, up 14% YOY and flat quarter on quarter.
Excluding the impact of ESOP, operating expenses grew 8% YOY for Q4 and 16% YOY for FY2025, which was in line with our guidance, driven mainly by investment in talent, non-ML business, and technology infrastructure. Operating profits stood at INR 3.55 billion, up 26% YOY. Profits after tax stood at INR 2.99 billion, down 13% YOY and up 1% quarter on quarter. For FY25, operating profit grew by 47% YOY to INR 14.04 billion, and profit after tax grew by 16% YOY to INR 12.86 billion.
Profit after tax is impacted by lower other income and higher tax rate YOY. As Sundeep mentioned earlier, for FY25, the Board of Directors have declared a dividend payout of INR 18 per share, that is 91% of net profit. This includes the proposed final dividend of INR 10 per share. Lastly, the Board of Directors in their meeting today have approved the following:
based on the recommendation of NRC, grant of 415,972 stock units under Nippon Life India Asset Management Performance Linked Stock Unit Scheme 2023 at INR 10 per stock, and grant of 1,723,149 stock option under the Nippon Life India Asset Management Employee Stock Option Scheme 2023 at INR 577.79 per stock option. With this, I would like to conclude my remarks and open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two.
Participants are requested to use handsets only while asking a question. We will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Before we move ahead with the questions, I would like to remind all the participants you may press star and one to ask a question. We have our first question from the lineup. Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal, please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, everyone. Just a few questions. How do you see the trajectory for the industry and for Nippon Asset going ahead? We've been hearing a lot of closures, and the incremental account openings have been weaker. How do you see the trend in this space, say, over the medium term? Second is, you mentioned about the expenses being in line with your guidance. How do you see the expenses in FY 2026?
Could it be great if you could split up the employee cost into what kind of ESOP expenses we could see going ahead? Lastly, on the offshore business, I see a drop sequentially in your managed assets from about INR 16,700 crore to about INR 15,200 crore sequentially. Is it only mark-to-market, or has there been some outflows? How should we see this? Do you see offshore, given that Japan has recently launched a new scheme, do you see this contributing meaningfully over the next 3-5 years? Those would be my questions.
Perfect. Let me start by the last part of the question, and then I'll request Chetty to answer on SIP and Parag on expenses. Firstly, offshore, whatever you're seeing is just a mark-to-market reduction, nothing else, point number one. Point number two, we are very excited about the launch of the new scheme that we launched in Japan, which is under the NISA scheme, which is one of which gives an access to Japanese investors to invest into India.
And the NISA scheme is a scheme which the government of Japan is promoting Japanese investors to invest outside of Japan. And we, being one of the stocks amongst all the Japanese asset management companies in Japan, Nippon Life is the one which has the strongest business in India. We see ourselves to be a great beneficiary of this.
We will not be able to give a futuristic number of what it can contribute, but for sure, directionally, over the next one or two years, Japanese retail money coming into India will become big, and you will see us playing a bigger role in that. That is our last question on the international and offshore. Chetty, if you can answer on SIPs, please.
Yeah, hi Prayesh. With regard to SIP, I think what we are seeing in the last three months, this quarter gone by, of course, at an industry level, you have seen the SIP book has started now sort of becoming flattish. It happens whenever there is a market volatility. We are seeing some higher percentage of stoppages which are happening at an industry level.
Those are temporary phenomena which we feel will go by as the market corrects and more education starts happening from an industry perspective. When it comes to, say, our business, what we are seeing is that in this particular last quarter, our flows have been much better than the industry flows. Our net flows, actually, in case of SIPs, the net book growth, what we are seeing is much better than the industry trend, and our stoppages are also much better than the industry trend.
What can happen from here on? Though the overall volume has come down, time has come to diversify the SIP book into multiple categories, which will probably give a better experience to the investor as they go ahead. That is our endeavor. As a team, we are trying to, even if the volumes go down, we'll be more focused on diversifying the SIP book into multiple categories and build products around SIP, which will give more stability to the SIP book as we go ahead from here on.
Good evening, Prayesh. On cost side, we will keep on investing in the future. We are expecting cost increase roughly in the range of around 15% ex-ESOP. Employee cost will be also in the similar range, maybe 14% ex-ESOP. The hit on the expense of the ESOP for the current quarter is around INR 11 crore, and for the full year, it is in the range of around INR 43 crore. Just a couple of bookkeeping questions. For the full year, what kind of ESOP costs will we build for FY2026?
Secondly, could you give us the yields across your asset classes? Lastly, the tax rate has been significantly lower in this quarter. What were the reasons, and how should we kind of model for FY2026? Those would be my questions. The ESOP cost will be in the range of around INR 48 crore-INR 49 crore next year. The yield equity is 57 basis points, debt remains 25 basis points, liquid is in the range of around 10-12 basis points, ETF remains 15 basis points yield. Total yield, blended yield is around 37 basis points.
The tax rate is slightly lower due to some of the assessment got over, and we got some reversal on that. Otherwise, the tax rate should remain in the normal 24%-25%, which is normal tax rate.
Got it. Thank you and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Kushagra Goel from CLSA, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just one question. In your balance sheet numbers, the property, plants, and equipment assets have increased quite a bit. We just wanted to understand what was that for. That's all.
Around last quarter, we purchased a corporate office in the Lower Parel in Parel area. That is what the cost which we recurred, and that has been capitalized in that.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Abhijeet Sakhare from Kotak Securities, please go ahead.
Hey, hi. Good evening, everyone. My first question is for Chetty. Across your top three or four funds which attract highest share of flows, can you comment on how recent performance trends would have impacted those numbers? Any stabilization or dip that you're witnessing there or continues to remain very strong? That's the first question, please.
I think whatever has happened in the market for the last one or two quarters, there is no direct linkage of that, the performance on the flow of the business. I think we clearly believe the Indian investors overall, it's not only for us. I think short-term performance dips one or two quarters do not make any difference. We continue to see the same inflows in the top five funds, and the trend has been the same for the last four or five quarters.
Got it. Then secondly, just to follow up, we used to have a very strong small-cap, mid-cap franchise, and over the last 12 months, we've tried to divert flows into some of the other larger categories as well. How's been the experience in terms of being able to create SIP accounts in those categories as against lump sums? The point of view here is that just to get a better handle on stability of flows in some of the newer flows that we've been getting in the last 6-1 2 months.
I think it's strongly had strong switches. We continue to have a strong switch as in small and mid-cap. That is point number one. I think the idea of having diverting the funds to other schemes, it's a part of the idea is to keep getting allocation across categories. I don't think it's a cost to one or two other.
I think from our perspective, the way we see is from a long-term point of view, we need to be basically across three or four bigger categories in the industry, whether it's small-cap, whether it's large-cap, flexi-cap. I think we want to be in the top three or top five, whatever the allocations are coming. It is a planned strategy to get a market share across all the categories.
Got it. Just a number question. If you could give the breakup of other income between debt and equity gains.
Abhijeet, if you do not disclose, I do not have it handy.
Got it. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. I repeat, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. Next question is from the lineup. Raghavesh from JM Financial, please go ahead. Mr. Raghavesh, are you there?
Yes. Am I audible? Yeah. Hi, sir. Congrats on the strong set of numbers. Getting back to the SIP in the mid and small-cap funds, we have severely restricted even the SIP limits in these funds. Given the markets have been weak in these segments and have corrected, are we considering opening it up to more investors in the near future?
Secondly, a kind of follow-up on that. Our SIP market share is already at 10.2%, even when we have restricted some of the inflows. How do we look at that had we not restricted? What would be a sustainable number if I'm looking at it from my 2027 point of view?
As you mentioned in the past, I think we see this business from a long-term point of view, and it should be sustainable. It's not over quarter on quarter. For sure, I think at this point of time, we have not taken any view to remove the cap or to take more money into small-cap. I think as and when it's taken, I think we've made it public.
The only thing I can share, having said that, if that's the question that you had, had we not stopped, could this 10.1 or 10 plus could have been more? I think it's a speculative thing, very difficult to comment on it. We believe by doing that and getting flows into all other schemes, we are making the foundation even more stronger.
Thanks. Just to follow up, have you considered, I mean, where are we on the entire distribution payout researching that we have done in the last couple of quarters? I mean, what percentage of our AUM has been replaced in terms of distributor commissions, and what more we are looking to do in the near future?
We have done around 45%-50% of the overall AUM.
Yeah. Strategy is we have already 45%-50% of our existing book has been, yeah, it has been repriced. I think we need to stabilize this as we go ahead from here on. As the business dynamics evolve from here on, we'll see how we can look at further opportunities. As of now, I think the major part of the AUM has been repriced.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Mohit Mangal from Centrum Broking, please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. First is in terms of investor segment-wide breakup of AUM. We are actually looking at last three to four years' data, and I looked retail per HNI going forward, and the corporate which was around 50%-odd of the total AUM now is around 39%-40%-odd . Going forward, I mean, after your analysis, do you think this corporate number will shrink further and retail per HNI will grow from here?
I think our focus continues on retail. Retail will continue, I mean, we believe that is where the biggest opportunity is. I think all the efforts across the company, across branches, across our distributed properties and ecosystem continues to be on retail and HNI. That does not mean we will not focus on corporate. The corporate is not something which you can directly control. We clearly believe that going forward, both when it comes to equity, 90% plus of the business will be from retail and HNI.
Okay. Understood. Next is in terms of the number of employees. I think we added about 160-odd employees in the last one year. Going forward, do you think this number of 1,165 will grow with the same run rate?
Not really. I think we had added that we had flat for the last couple of years. Maybe next year we may add about 75%-100%.
Okay. That run rate will come down?
Yeah.
Okay. Thanks, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking my question, and actually, congratulations for a great set of numbers. Just two questions first. I think you mentioned earlier that we've not participated in the new thematic sectoral sort of fund launches, and still we've managed a high single-digit market share in net sales. If we exclude the NFO money, then our market share is actually in double digits. Is there any rethink in this strategy? Going forward, should we see new fund launches from you?
Why are we not sort of doing that? Some thought process around that because it definitely helps us build scale, and we're losing out on that additional flow that we could get. Second, just on your staff cost, maybe I missed this because the line has kept disconnecting today for some reason. The ESOP costs, what are the ESOP costs in this year, and how should we think about ESOP costs going into next year? What would be sort of your expense guidance on an overall basis over the next couple of years? That will help me.
Thanks. Madhukar, I'll take the first question on the NFOs, then I'll request Parag to give you an answer on the ESOP cost and all. I think let me clarify first. I think our strategy over the last two, three years has been not to launch new big mega NFOs, thematic funds, and it's per design. I think while we're on the passive side, we continue launching wherever there's a new theme. We have let the investor take a decision whenever he wants to enter any particular theme in passive funds.
For NFOs, we have our internal view that launching mega NFOs gives a short-term kick, gives a short-term AUM. From a long-term stability point of view, if you do a deep dive into these numbers, a lot of this AUM gets shifted from scheme A to scheme B within the same AMC or from other schemes of other AMCs. Our historical data shows us that NFO investors typically are not very, very sticky.
We believe continuing to scale up our existing products, continuing to get investors who come because of the track record of the scheme rather than coming because of the hope of returns. I think that's our big strategy. Also, what we want is NFOs many times distract the company, distract the sales teams. Everyone starts working on it. We continue focusing, as I mentioned in the past, on building a strong foundation which is scalable in the long run.
I mean, immediate short NFOs doing INR 5,000-INR 10,000 crore, I mean, for the scale and size that we have, it's very easy. It requires a lot of conviction to say that we are not going to be participating in short-term gain, but continue gaining money from a long-term point of view. I think that's the answer on the NFOs. Having said that, I think one more thing I'd like to touch is, since you touched, are we losing out a big pool of money?
Answer is no. If you see the investor pool, our investor base continues to grow faster than the industry. That is a reflection of the fact that investors actually prefer schemes with long-term track record. Selling NFOs with the hope of return is short-term maybe a good strategy, but from a long-term point of view, we are at least ourselves are not convinced. That is on the NFOs. Parag, can you please answer on this?
Madhukar, the cost on the ESOP in the current year, the expenses are around INR 23 crore. In current quarter, it is around INR 11 crore. Next year, we are expecting something in the range of around INR 48 crore-INR 49 crore with both the ESOP schemes. Our guidance on expenses currently, this year, we had an ESOP around 15%. We will keep on investing in our business. Our guidance on expectation is around 15% on next year also, extra ESOP.
That is on overall costs?
Yeah.
15% growth on overall costs, is it so? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Great performance, excellent performance, and all the best for the future. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Abhijeet Sakare from Kotak Securities, please go ahead.
Thanks for the follow-up. I have a question on yield. If I recall correctly, I think last quarter as well, our equity yields were about 57-odd basis points. If that number is correct, how has the recent commission cuts impacted the overall yields? Given that the equity AUMs are also down quarter on quarter.
Abhijeet, overall, the impact will be very on the yield basis may not be very great. It will be part of the overall yield. This 57 last quarter may be on basis point in decimals might have changed. The overall yield remained more or less in the line. There may be some decimal changes.
Understood. The entire commission cut is now in the base, right? There's no more pending impact to be taken, right?
No, no, no.
Okay. Okay.
Thank you so much. Thank you. We have our follow-up question from a lineup. Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Just a couple of years back or a year back, we had a 70% volume share on exchanges in terms of ETF. We're now down to 53%. Is there anything to read into it? I know it's still a very meaningful market share, but the drop has also been quite meaningful. Anything to read into it, and how do you kind of aim to protect this? That would be my question right now, yeah.
Abhijeet, hi. Arun here. First of all, you will appreciate that if you look at other numbers like Net Sales, for example, and even the current volume, it's way, way higher when compared to our current market share. The volume per se, it is part of the pie, right? With more players coming in, that as a percentage might look a little on the lower side. In some categories, we are consciously not present. For example, some S mart Beta, etc., where the liquidity can be on the lower side, which could impact the investors negatively.
We may have decided not to launch ETF at this point in time. That also could affect margins at the periphery. Having said that, this number still is a high number. Within that, some categories like, for example, Nifty, we come on 73% of the volume. Much of the Net Sales also happens in categories like Nifty, Gold, where yeah. That is where we are. Nifty, Gold, and Silver particularly, our volumes are fairly, fairly high and much higher than our current market share.
Got that. A broader question on the debt side. We are heading in, we have already seen one rate cut, and possibly we will see more rate cuts going ahead. The debt segment, how do you see the trends there? Do you think that it can revive and you can see significant inflows there going ahead? How should we kind of look at this segment as such?
Yeah. I think you have analyzed it right. What we are seeing in the last two months, the liquidity in the mutual fund industry has gone up in expectation of a moderate rate cut, a moderate rate scenario. Also, we have to remember the fact that a lot of these FDs, which the banks had mobilized in the last couple of years, are now coming for maturity. The rollovers will be at a lower yield. Hence, the mutual fund schemes start becoming the first port of call for investors.
We are seeing in the month of April and in the month of March, there was a good flow into the shorter end and the medium duration products. Hence, if the softer regime continues, which we feel will be the scenario as we go ahead, there will be a sort of inflow into these categories for sure.
Okay. Just one last question on the offshore business. What kind of yields do you make on the offshore business, and how is the trajectory there?
Around 50, depending on the thing, around 60-100 basis points on which product equity and that is a yield. 60-100, this is the range of. I think we mentioned earlier, we have a digital fund, which again, is a venture fund, which comes under our AIF subsidiary. For that also, there comes a carry to come into play after a certain time. That is still a long time away.
Okay. Any other geographies that you're looking for to grow the offshore business apart from Japan in the near future?
I think from our perspective, we continue leveraging the global network of Nippon. Till now, if you see, most of our business that is coming, international business is coming. If you look at a slide in the presentation, whether it is coming through DWS, whether it is from the Genkai, which is Japan, BBLAM, which is Bangkok Life Asset Management, and Cathay, which is Taiwan.
I think all these are companies where Nippon Life has a strategic interest or something. We will continue. I think we do not want to remain in the wheel. We do not, and neither do we have the direct capability. We do not want to go out anywhere in the world and start afresh. We will piggyback on Nippon Life Network. What you will see, Japan will continue to be our core.
Got that. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Gaurav Jani from Prabhudas Lilladher, please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. Firstly, I wanted to check on the blended yields and the related equity yields and which would be the payout. Given that we had already rationalized commissions for a few funds since the effect on February 1st, would there be any benefit that is to the next quarter? I mean, what is your assessment of that?
The blended yield is around 37 basis points. The equity yield is 57 basis points, as I mentioned earlier. The cut which has happened in the current quarter, which is already part of the yields, and this will continue.
I was asking on net basis, would that benefit also in the next quarter or all the benefit is already taken?
Yeah. Yeah. It is already part of this. That will continue. Just to add to that, just to add to that, the blended is a combination not only of the yields but also of the mix. If the ETF business grows at a faster pace, then the yield will show a decline on a blended basis. As we have been guiding in the past, we expect a two to three basis point decline year on year going forward as well.
Sure. Lastly, on ESOP, right? I believe there was a fresh issue because I guess the ESOP trajectory that we had originally estimated, there is an increase in that. Can you just tell us what would be the cost in 2026 and 2027 put together?
In the current year, it was around INR 43 crore. Next year, we are expecting in the range of around INR 48 crore-INR 49 crore.
Okay. And FY2027?
FY2027 will be lower than the number because it will go down.
It will taper down, yeah.
Correct. Any chance to spell out? I mean, because we follow a trajectory, right, in ESOP, so for 2027 and?
Gaurav, I do not have numbers right now. We can see it. I will let you know offline.
Sure. Sure. Sure. Thanks. Thanks a lot. That's it from my side.
Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Krishnam Mundhra from NJ Invest. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. On the SIP side, I just wanted to know your perspective. Can we assume that going forward, given the direct tax limits being increased to INR 1,200,000 for individuals and INR 1,275,000 for salaried individuals, more disposable coming in, more disposable income coming in the hands of individuals, basically more of salaried individuals?
Will that disposable income, can it come into mutual funds through SIP, or majorly this will go into consumer discretionary segments? Just wanted to know your analysis from the past, basically when such limits were raised.
According to the way, it's very difficult to have a direct correlation between when disposable income increases and will that directly flow into consumption or into mutual funds. Our distinct dipstick says that I think clearly the awareness about mutual funds is increasing. The culture to invest in SIPs is increasing.
Whatever is going to be the disposable income, when it increases in your hand, you will see a part of that coming, surely part of that will be coming into SIP. Will that entire amount come? I think it's very difficult to predict. Definitely, mutual fund industry and players like us who are very active in retail, SIP is very important for us, will benefit from this taxation change.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the lineup. Sai Jaffe from Ajanta Capital, please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, gentlemen. Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yeah. Yeah. Please go ahead.
Yeah. I just had a couple of bookkeeping questions. Now, could you just share the net inflow number for the equity and the ETF segment for the fourth quarter and for the full year?
We do not disclose the net sales number specifically for us. Industry number we have mentioned as a part of our speech and a part of our deck.
Oh, okay.
SIPs are higher single digit or just about double digit in net sales.
Yeah.
And Mr. Lister. We are net sales are higher single digit and x of enable higher double digit. You may look at the numbers.
Right. Would you give us the closing AUM figures for the segments?
The closing overall around INR 554,000 crore.
And for equity?
It is around INR 276,000. INR 276,000 crore.
ETF, sir, if I can get?
ETF is INR 165,000. Liquid? After the liquid, the data is better. Liquid is around INR 33,000 and data is around INR 80,500.
Okay. Just last question on the SIP book. In terms of the mix of this SIP book, what proportion would be towards, say, small and mid-caps? Any flavor if you can just give?
I thin k for us, the top five funds are 80% of the funds. I think we do not give the breakup on the funds.
For the last quarter or so, has there been any change in that? I see the book has been relatively stable. Has there been a change in that book over the last three months?
I think it has broadly been the same. I think there is nothing significant to report.
Okay. All right. Thank you so much for this.
Thank you.
We have our next question from the lineup. Bhavin Pande from Trust Plutus Wealth Managers. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Am I audible?
Yeah. Yeah. Pleas e go ahead, Bhavin.
Congratulations to you on a wonderful set of numbers and a wonderful effort to refi [uncertain]. I just wanted to touch upon the structuring of asset products and ETFs. Is the sole purpose just to minimize the business risk, or we also look at expanding our offering so an investor could have a repertoire of products? It should also enhance returns from a diversification perspective.
I think your voice was not clear. Could you repeat that, please?
Sure. I hope I'm clear now.
This is much better, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When we look at the structuring of products in the ETF and passive bucket, the sole purpose, is it just to minimize the basis risk, or do we look at expanding our offerings in a way where an investor would have a repertoire of products which would enhance returns as well?
Absolutely. I think from our point of view, it's definitely there are thoughts that we need to offer different types of funds, different styles, different categories of funds and passives to the investors and let the investor make a decision. We do not do it with the intent what is good for us. We do not want to do it with the intent that the investor will make a better return.
The reason why we do not do active funds big enough for us, out there our strategy is very different. For passive, our approach is to keep launching products, keep them available on the shelf, and let the investor, with the help of his advisor, decide which one he wants to invest.
Okay. Any conscious effort is there to minimize the basis risk?
Basis risk means the?
The tracking error.
The tracking error. No, no. Conscious, there's a lot of science and art behind it. It's definitely that's the core of the whole business. I think, as we have mentioned in past, ultimately, many times when the markets are not matured, investors feel that the only thing that matters is the expense. In reality, the liquidity and the tracking error are the two most important things. The majority of our focus is to have lower tracking error and higher liquidity. The impact cost for the investor is not there.
Okay. That was helpful.
Thank you, Mr. Sikka. Congrats to you, Parag, and the entire team for a wonderful year. Good luck.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that would be our last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you all for joining the conference call and wishing you a happy new financial year.