Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited (NSE:NAM.INDIA)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
1,065.60
-37.80 (-3.43%)
At close: May 11, 2026
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Q4 25/26

Apr 27, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Nippon Life India Asset Management for Q FY 2026 earnings call hosted by Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Prayesh Jain
Executive Director Instititional Research Insurance and Capital Markets, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Thank you, Ikra, and good evening to everyone. On behalf of Motilal Oswal, I welcome you all to Nippon Life India Asset Management's fourth quarter FY 2026 earnings conference call. We have along with us Mr. Sundeep Sikka, Managing Director and CEO, and 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 sir for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Thanks, Prayesh. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call. We have with us our President and CBO, Saugata Chatterjee, CFO Parag, our Deputy CFO Amol, our Chief Digital Officer Arpan, Head AIF Ashish, Deputy AIF Head Ashwin, and Matsui-san, nominee of Nippon Life Insurance, Japan. I would like to share key highlights of our performance, and post that I will hand over to Parag to speak in greater detail on the recent industry trends as well as the performance, post which we will move to Q&A. Coming to the key highlights, I would like to start by mentioning NAM India was the fastest-growing AMC in the top ten AMCs, both in Q4 as well as FY 2026. This led to a continued increase in our overall AUM market share.

We had the highest increase in AUM market share in the industry in FY 2026. Our market share is at 8.89, is the highest since June 2019. Importantly, both equity net sales market share and SIP market share remain above our equity AUM market share, with both being in high single digit for the quarter. Moving to our financial performance, NAM India achieved its highest ever annual profit after tax at INR 15.29 billion, a growth of 19% year-on-year, as well as the highest operating profit at INR 17.48 billion, a growth of 24% year-on-year. Further, we also achieved our highest ever quarterly operating profit of INR 4.93 billion. For FY 2026, the board of directors have declared a dividend payout of INR 21.50 per share.

That is 91.5% of the net profits. This includes the proposed final dividend of INR 12.50 per share. Now, I will hand over the call to Parag for further details on the industry and our performance.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Good evening. Thank you, Sundeep. Let me start off with markets. Equity markets in Q4 FY 2026 witnessed a correction from prior quarter levels. The Nifty decreased by 14.5% quarter on quarter, while the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices decreased by 12.8% quarter on quarter and 14.4% quarter on quarter respectively. The repo rate was flat quarter on quarter at 5.25%, while the ten-year G-Sec yield increased by 45 basis points quarter on quarter to 7.04%. Coming to the data on the mutual fund industry. Industry's quarterly average AUM grew by 20.9% year on year and 0.7% quarter on quarter in Q4 FY 2026 to INR 81.5 trillion.

The share of equity in the overall AUM decreased by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, ending at 56.4% for Q4 FY 2026. Now moving on to industry flows. Even in these volatile markets, the equity category witnessed gross inflows of INR 2.78 trillion and net inflows of INR 1.23 trillion. Both the gross and net inflows were higher quarter-on-quarter. Categories with the highest inflows were Flexi Cap, Multi-Asset Allocation, and Mid Cap funds. The fixed income category witnessed net outflows of INR 1.78 trillion in the quarter. The ETF category had net inflows of INR 709 billion, up 36% quarter-on-quarter. Moving on to SIP.

Industry SIP contribution for the quarter was INR 929 billion, up 19% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter. Monthly SIP flows in March 2026 stood at INR 321 billion at an all-time high. Contributing SIP folios decreased by 0.7 million, that is 1% lower to 97.2 million for March 2026 over December 2025. However, on year-on-year basis, contributing SIP folios increased by 16.1 million, that is 20% year-on-year growth. At the end of the quarter, unique investor in the mutual fund industry increased to 61.4 million. That is an increase of 13% year-on-year. Now moving to our business performance. We closed the quarter with the total asset under management of INR 7.73 trillion.

This includes mutual fund managed accounts, offshore funds and GIFT City. Our mutual fund quarterly average AUM grew 30.1% year-on-year and 3.4% quarter-on-quarter to reach INR 7.25 trillion. We were the fastest growing AMC in the top 10 in Q4 FY 2026 and annually in FY 2026, and had the highest increase in quarterly average AUM market share among all AMCs in FY 2026. I would like now to share a few highlights for the quarter. Starting with the market share. Our market share increased 63 basis points year-on-year and 24 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 8.89%. Our equity market share increased 24 basis points year-on-year and was 3 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 7.16%. We achieved a high single digit market share in net sales in equity and hybrid segment in Q4 FY 2026.

However, excluding NFOs, our market share would be in double digits. We continue to have the largest investor base in the mutual fund industry with 23.8 million unique investors. We are humbled to have over one in three mutual fund investors invest with us. I would also like to touch upon some of the important aspects of our systematic book. I am happy to share that there has been continued momentum in our systematic growth. Our monthly systematic book rose by 17% year-on-year to INR 37.2 billion for March 2026. This resulted in an annualized systematic book of INR 447 billion. SIP market share stood at 9.84% for March 2026, marginally higher than 9.82% as of December 2025. Moving on briefly to ETF segment.

We continue to be one of the largest ETF players with AUM of INR 2.42 trillion and a market share of 21.4%, which increased by 234 basis points year-on-year and 109 basis points quarter-on-quarter. Our share in the industry ETF folio is 45%. We also have 52% share of ETF volume on the NSE and the BSE. Our ETF average daily volumes across key funds remain far higher than the rest of the industry. The industry continued to witness a surge in gold and silver ETF volumes in the quarter. Combined AUM in these two ETFs for NIMF was INR 848 billion as of March 31, 2026, up 23% quarter-on-quarter. In quarterly average AUM terms, our gold and silver ETF represent 36% of ETF AUM and 12% of the MF AUM.

During the quarter, we completed two debt index fund NFOs, raising INR 8.6 billion cumulatively. These were Nippon India CRISIL-IBX Financial Services 3-6 Months Debt Index Fund and Nippon India CRISIL-IBX Financial Services 9-12 Months Debt Index Fund. Moving on to the digital franchises. Digital purchase transaction and new SIP registration rose to 5.04 million in Q4 FY 2026, up 44% year-on-year. We had our highest ever monthly transaction in January 2026 at 1.79 million. Digital business contributed 77% of the total new purchase transaction in Q4 FY 2026. During the quarter, NAM's digital business intensified its focus on long-term investor behavior through multiple initiatives aimed at strengthening SIP habits and re-engaging terminated SIP investors amid market volatility, helping rebuild confidence in disciplined long-term investing despite short-term noise.

Now, I would like to briefly update on our subsidiaries and GIFT City. Starting off with AIF. Under Nippon Life India AIF, we offer Category two and Category three AIFs and have raised cumulative commitment of INR 93.3 billion across various schemes, up 26% year-on-year. In Q4 FY 2026, we raised INR 4 billion of commitment across various asset classes. Fundraising is currently underway for two of our listed equity AIFs, one private credit fund and direct VC fund. Based on the success of Nippon India Credit Opportunities Fund, NICO 1, we launched the second series, NICO 2, and successfully conducted first close in Q4 FY 2026. With the first capital call, the fund is drawn down to the extent of 25%. On the offshore front, our AUM stood at INR 139 billion.

We continue to expand our footprint in new geographies across Europe, Asia and Latin America. Moving to GIFT City. As stated previously, we currently have two feeder funds, namely Nippon India ETF Nifty 50 BeES GIFT and Nippon India Large Cap Fund GIFT. The AUM in these funds stood at $38 million. Now on to our financial performance. For Q4 FY 2026, revenue stood at INR 7.39 billion, up 30% year-on-year and 5% quarter-on-quarter. Other income stood at INR -0.34 billion, lower both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter due to the market volatility. Operating expenses stood at INR 2.45 billion, up 16% year-on-year and down 1% quarter-on-quarter.

Operating profit stood at INR 4.93 billion, up 39% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter. Profit after tax stood at INR 3.85 billion, up 29% year-on-year and down 5% quarter-on-quarter. For FY 2026, operating profit grew by 24% year-on-year. Profit after tax grew by 19% year-on-year. As Sundeep mentioned earlier, for FY 2026, the board of directors have declared a dividend payout of 21.5%. That is approximately 91.5% of the net profit. This includes proposed final dividend of INR 12.5% per share. Lastly, the board of directors in their meeting today have approved the following ESOP based on the recommendation of NRC.

Grant of 387,448 stock units under Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited Performance Linked Stock Unit Scheme 2023 at INR 10 per stock unit. Grant of 1,596,475 stock options under the Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited Employee Stock Option Scheme 2023 at INR 898.04 per stock option. With this, I would like to conclude my remarks and open the floor for questions.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Swarnabha Mukherjee from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on a great set of numbers. Few questions, sir. First of all, on the yield movement this particular quarter, just wanted to understand whether this is primarily a product mix shift towards the ETFs or is there anything else to read into that in terms of you know how the expansion has happened in terms of the margin? Also, if you could call out the yield by category, including the ETF category also, how it has played out this quarter vis-à-vis last quarter. That's my first question.

Secondly, sir, in terms of the SIP flow numbers that you have reported, the numbers have been broadly in that, between INR 3,600 crore-INR 3,700 crore kind of range over the last five, six months. I just wanted to understand, what is, you know, how should we think about this trend going forwards and in terms of, the flow in the various schemes that we have? Has there been any change or movement? And if you could give some color on, you know, new SIPs created vis-a-vis the redemptions, et cetera, that would be very helpful. In conjunction, if you could also, discuss about, the net inflows in equity, and the active equity category, how they are looking vis-a-vis the SIP flows.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Sir-

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Lastly, sir. Yeah, just one last question on the ESOP cost, how to think about next 12 months? Yeah.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Sir, I'll request Parag to take the question on yields and the ESOP cost, and then we'll have Saugata Chatterjee talking about the flows.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah. Swarnabha, the yield movement is mainly due to the change in the asset mix, as you mentioned, that has resulted a slight increase, marginally higher yield in the current quarter. The yield on equity is 53 basis points, 55 ex of arbitrage. On debt it's 25 basis points. On liquid, it remains in the range of around 11 basis points-12 basis points. On ETF, it's slightly higher than 25 basis points year-on-year. Blended yield is-

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Okay.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Marginally up 50 basis points. On the ESOP cost, the next year ESOP or the current year ESOP for quarter ESOP is INR 11 crore. The overall ESOP for the current year is INR 43-odd crore. For the new plan, the next year ESOP cost will be in the range of around INR 35-odd crore. The overall cost on ESOP of the new plan will be in the range of around INR 70 crore-INR 75 crore for the next four years.

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Okay. For the next four years-

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah.

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

We can see a staggered approach in the numbers.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah. Generally, first year generally it's higher you'll because it's a one-time sort of numbers.

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Right, sir. Understood.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Okay.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Hi. Coming to the SIP trends. Like you mentioned, we have the SIP flows are in the range of about INR 3,600 crores-3,700 crores. You would have seen last quarter also in our call we had mentioned that, you know, the SIP net inflow which is coming in the industry has sort of flattened. We are also sort of seeing a similar trend in our case. Along with that what we have seen in the last say six-odd months, we have started now building a SIP book across few other categories, mostly in the hybrids and in the commodity funds. One or two categories, like I mentioned in the last quarter call, Flexi Cap and sector funds are these two.

These are two categories where we really need to build our SIP book. We are working on that very closely. Hopefully that will keep giving us slightly better net sales growth as we go ahead from here on. But the good part is that the SIP book, you know, market share is more than our equity net sales market share and equity market share, which is definitely the reason why our equity market share is growing. That should be the parameter which one needs to track and we are tracking that very closely. Hopefully, you know, that should keep helping us have a stable growth in market share.

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Okay, sir. Just to clarify, the equity net sales market share you had mentioned in your opening remarks, it would be in high single digits. Am I correct?

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah. Yeah. If you exclude the NFOs, it is in double digit. If you include the NFOs, we don't do NFOs, so, it is still closer to a double digit.

Swarnabha Mukherjee
Analyst, 360 ONE Capital

Okay. Very helpful, sir. Thank you so much and all the best.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Mangal from Centrum. Please go ahead.

Mohit Mangal
Analyst, Centrum

Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question is on the regulation. Regulation that came with effect from April 1, which has a potential impact of five basis points on equity AUM. Now that we are towards the end of April, just wanted to know what steps we have taken to mitigate the impact and maybe how should we see that impact going forward.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Mohit, the impact will be in the range of around 3.5 basis points-4 basis points, which we will try to minimize, even though it's the first month but it is over the period we'll try to minimize, for the finance or the P&L numbers.

Mohit Mangal
Analyst, Centrum

Okay. Will that be through a distribution cut or how that should be?

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yes.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah. We are going to pass on the entire thing to the distributors. It's a pass through.

Mohit Mangal
Analyst, Centrum

Understood. That's very helpful. Second is that the tax rate was very low in Q4. What was the reason for that?

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

There was some relief due post the assessments, which we have taken a reversal in the current quarter. Plus there are some due to this mark-to-market losses also there is some lower taxation because the rates are slightly lower on that. That is why there is a slightly lower taxation on that side.

Mohit Mangal
Analyst, Centrum

Understood. My last question is towards the share of flows in the ETF space. You know, that has come down from 53% in Q4 2025, you know, to 45% in the current quarter. Are we facing a lot of competition within this space or how should we look at it?

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

If you see the ETF, the color of the ETF flows which are coming in various categories in the industry, the commodity ETFs I have seen some higher inflows in the last six months and typically in the last three months barring say March. It's not competition, it is something related to how the market looks at multiple options when they are trying to diversify their product bouquet. I think we still remain highest on volumes. Our volumes are the highest. Our inflows from a net inflow point of view is still higher. We continue to build on that perspective in the market. The ETF is more about volumes.

It is more about how many new investors are, you know, trading on the exchange and what is the impact cost we are able to deliver in the funds.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

I think it's important to note that the overall volumes continue to grow.

Mohit Mangal
Analyst, Centrum

Right. No, this is very helpful. Thanks, and I wish you all the best.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.

Prayesh Jain
Executive Director Instititional Research Insurance and Capital Markets, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just a few questions from my side. Firstly, as you mentioned, right, that the SIP momentum in the industry itself has kind of stabilized. And in the past also we've seen markets not doing great. Right? Do you see any further slowdown or how should we kind of read into this from an industry trends perspective? Especially if you could highlight how the trends are different between, say, a do it yourself model versus a distributed model? That's my question number one. Question number two is, you know, last couple of quarters we've seen a very strong traction on silver and gold ETFs in terms of flows and because of which we have kind of benefited on the fees.

How do you see the traction at least in the near term on these categories? My last question will be on the expenses front or overall expenses. You know, you've been guiding about a 15% growth in overall expenses. Should we kind of stick to that? You know, as basis points of AUM, we are still higher than a few of our peers. Do you think that, you know, we structurally over the next couple of years we should start tending towards that kind of a number? Or how should we look at expenses? Yeah, those would be my questions. Thanks.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Where is the expense number? I will take it, and then Chatterjee will add on to the series thing. The expenses, yeah, our guidance will still remain in the range of 15%-16% year-on-year ex ESOP. That is what our guidance remains. The basis, the idea is always that we should have operating leverage. As the AUM grows, the operating leverage should kick in and should help us to reduce the basis over longer period. That will be our thought process. Chatterjee on the SIPs.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yeah. I think on the SIPs, it's a good question. What we are seeing is that the fintech platforms are definitely aiding growth of the SIP book in the industry. The client behavior might be slightly different than what comes in from a distributor-led SIP inflow. The cycles are a bit shorter when it comes to fintech you know investors. The good part is they are ready to commit more and hence the average ticket size is also now moving up. That's a good trend. The other side is you know when it comes to distributor-led SIPs we are finding that these volatile conditions are leading them to you know educate the investor and show better retention.

You know, challenges will always remain, but you know, as we progress from here on and more SIPs moving towards hybrid category and large cap-oriented funds will lead to better retention in times to come. That's our thought process and view.

Prayesh Jain
Executive Director Instititional Research Insurance and Capital Markets, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Just on that question on the silver and gold ETFs, what is the kind of traction that we are seeing in the near term on this, on these products?

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

See, I think as you would have seen, I think gold, silver. Why only gold, silver? I think most of the flagship ETFs, I think because of our volume, liquidity, I think we normally get a higher share. Last two, three years because of SGL gold and silver, the increase in prices, we definitely saw the new investors, a lot of new investors coming in. Last two months ever since the volumes have been, the price has come down. We have also seen a little bit, you know, a decrease. Interestingly, I think this Akshaya Tritiya, which was there recently, I think out of the total traded volume on the stock exchange that day, 63% of the volume was of Nippon commodities.

I think we continue building a strong foundation. I think we don't want to look at the numbers on a monthly or a weekly basis. I think the key fundamental thing, which is basically the tracking error, the liquidity, I think these are the two things we continue focusing on, and there's a natural pull for the products. We feel wherever commodities, you know, depending on the cycles, the way they move, I think investors whenever they come, I think we remain one of the first port of calls.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Also to add, we are also seeing a lot of SIPs coming in this category. You know, that will really give stability to this category in times to come, which used to happen about five years, 10 years back. I think that's a good trend.

Prayesh Jain
Executive Director Instititional Research Insurance and Capital Markets, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Hmm.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

I hope we have answered your question. Yes.

Prayesh Jain
Executive Director Instititional Research Insurance and Capital Markets, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Yes, sir.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shivaji Thapliyal from YES SECURITIES. Please go ahead.

Shivaji Thapliyal
Analyst, YES SECURITIES

Am I audible?

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Yes, please go ahead.

Operator

Yes, you are.

Shivaji Thapliyal
Analyst, YES SECURITIES

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions surrounding the SIF business. One is that when is the SIF business actually starting on the ground? Is there any specific timeline for that? And is there anything holding it up? That's number one. And number two, what is the outlook for this business, you know, from a medium term, maybe couple of years perspective and also long-term, you know, five-year perspective from an AUM standpoint and also perhaps profitability? Thank you.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Thanks.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

I think let me, you know, I can take the second question first, you know. I think this is a new business line. We somehow are convinced, I think this is something very can become very big. This is something what ETFs were about 10 years back. Very difficult to put a number to it. 10 years back, if somebody would have asked about the ETF business, they would not have been able to say how big it can become. I think we are very. We are seeing this business very see it as an important pillar in times to come, point number one. That is one of the reasons we've built up a very strong team under the leadership of industry veteran, Arun .

I think what will be the numbers, what will be the AUM, we do not know. I think we clearly feel this is a product and a category. There is a demand for that. There is a separate market for that. There is a separate niche, and it requires a specialized skill set for that. We are getting ready. This is an important opportunity. To your question of when do we hit the ground? I think we are already. You know, I think while, yes, we have not formally launched our product, definitely there is a lot of work happening at the back end, to decide and work on backtesting of certain products and all that which we want to launch.

Because no idea trying to launch a SIF, which is a mutual fund plus 10%-20% variation of the mutual fund. I think you really want to differentiate it and add value to investors. Yeah, to your question, I think we are very serious for this business because we feel it takes care of a separate need which some investors have. I think Arun and team are already working on it.

Shivaji Thapliyal
Analyst, YES SECURITIES

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Praveen from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Praveen Agarwal
Analyst, HSBC

Oh, thank you and good evening. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Two questions from my side. Firstly, about GIFT City. Wanted to understand your strategy and if you have any more products planned. Second is just about the little overhang with the SEBI fine and everything. Just if there is any timeline on resolution.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

I think let me take the second one first, you know. I think at this point of time, we do not have anything new to disclose other than that has been disclosed to the stock exchanges. I think as and when we hear from SEBI, I think we'll inform, you know, through the stock exchanges. That is, I think, point number one. Point number two on the GIFT City. I think again, GIFT City, we feel, I think GIFT City is again becoming an important gateway into India. I think while there is a lot of discussion happening on money moving out of India, launching products which is under LRS, but we see a bigger opportunity of money coming into India.

I think all our roadshows that we've been doing in Japan and certain other markets. I think we feel today the acceptability of GIFT City is increasing, and more foreign flow will come into India through GIFT City. We have our operations in place there. We have a complete compliance team, and we have some more details on slide number 25.

Praveen Agarwal
Analyst, HSBC

Great. Nice. Thank you very much, and all the best.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mahek from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.

Mahek Shah
Analyst, Emkay Global

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers. I have just one question on SIP folios. We have seen the SIP folios have been declining on a sequential basis. Any read-through out there? If you could just help us understand what are the SIP trends in terms of flows with respect to the month of April. Secondly, I just wanted to know your thoughts on the stickiness of SIP flows in the commodity ETF segment. Yeah. These are my two questions.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

The SIP inflows, if you take Q3 and Q4, of course, there is a jump in the Q4 numbers vis-à-vis Q3. Like I mentioned, you know, November, December, January, February was a bit of a tough phase for you know, the industry as well as the inflows were lesser. I think March, we have seen a slightly better month. The trends continue to be better as we go ahead. That helps us in net SIP growth every month, which probably will start now reflecting further in the SIP book. We have seen in March our SIP book has improved. Which is a clear indication that you know, the investors are coming in with slightly better understanding of the volatility.

That's the first part. When it comes to SIPs in the commodity side, most of the SIPs are coming in gold and silver, of course. There are SIPs which flow into other categories which have got a commodity tilt like hybrids, like fund of funds. We keep getting flows which are coming through the fund of funds also into our hybrid, into our commodity fund.

Mahek Shah
Analyst, Emkay Global

Got it, sir. Thank you so much.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Okay.

Operator

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Sakhare from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Abhijit Sakhare
Analyst, Kotak Securities

Hi. Good evening, everyone. My first question is for Sundeep Sikka sir. First of all, congratulations on the new role as well. Sir, on the SIP again, like what we've seen in the last few months, like you mentioned, there was a little bit of a slowdown in net SIP inflows. Just wanted to check here whether you've seen people take money out and kind of take it out of the mutual funds itself or, compared to the past, you've seen people kind of staying on within the mutual fund ecosystem and moving that money into some other sector products or let's say at least more exciting products like the commodity ETF. Just you know, some qualitative sense on that.

Secondly, in terms of the fintech versus traditional channel, you mentioned that the fintech channel ticket sizes have gone up. If you could just give some sense of what is the relative difference in terms of the fintech SIP book versus the traditional SIP book. That's the first question, sir.

Saugata Chatterjee
President and Chief Business Officer, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Okay. SIPs, you know, when it comes to SIPs, which are coming through the fintech platform, like I mentioned, they are a bit of a short cycle, because they come with a past track record in perspective and if there is a volatility, which is a fact in the market today, they tend to stop and restart. The good part is they don't exit the AUM, they restart a new journey, and that's the reason why the SIP discontinuation number in the industry looks to be on the higher side. When it comes to net SIP accretion, every month there is a positive accretion which is happening.

When it comes to the average ATS, I think ATS is sequentially moving up on the digital side. Maybe they are in the range of 60%-70% of the regular SIP which comes in from the distribution channel, but the catch-up has been very good and very fast. The education drive which is happening digitally through fintech platforms and through the asset management companies is really helping the investors to commit a slightly larger SIP amount on a monthly basis. I hope I have answered your question.

Abhijit Sakhare
Analyst, Kotak Securities

Yes, sir. Secondly, you know, question for Parag, sir, would be that, you know, what would be the MF revenues in the year 2026?

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Percentage it will be much, it's higher than 90%. 92% approximately on the overall revenue.

Abhijit Sakhare
Analyst, Kotak Securities

92% of the overall revenues is mutual funds. Okay.

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

91%, Abhijit. Sorry.

Abhijit Sakhare
Analyst, Kotak Securities

91%. Understood. Those are my questions. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Divyansh Gupta from Latent PMS. Please go ahead.

Divyansh Gupta
Analyst, Latent PMS

Hi, sir. One simple question. If I look at the industry leader and the recent one that also IPO'd and looking at their operating margin versus our operating margin, is there a clear pathway in our head wherein we also can reach at those EBITDA margins? Or given the product mix, we are likely to remain at a lower EBITDA margin business compared to the other two companies?

Parag Joglekar
CFO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Basically the reason for us is that we are maintaining the EBITDA margin. That is what we have been continuing even though there is a trajectory that the telescoping pricing will keep on dropping the overall TER. But we are continuing to keep the margin intact for so many years. The reason is mainly the mix in AUM. We almost contribute to 33% of the ETF and we have significantly higher ETF in our overall AUM, and that's why our margin is lower. But the idea is to grow the overall profitability year-over-year and grow as a percentage growth which is in line or higher than most of the industry players.

That is what the number we are looking at, rather than the only basis points which is a derived number from that. Absolute profit will be more critical for us to monitor and grow as a business.

Divyansh Gupta
Analyst, Latent PMS

Understood. The second question, if you can share any update on the recent JV that we formed.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

I think broadly, I think that's for our AIF business. You know, as we have signed up a non-binding agreement, you know, and I think it's the idea is I think we will be launching products in AIF. I think the idea is I think we clearly see an opportunity to get a lot of overseas money and especially in the alternate and the infrastructure side. Also I think as far as the JV is concerned, it will also there helps in collaboration, not only in the AIF, where it will be a JV, but also within a mutual fund business, you know, I think whether from a capability of international funds, ETF, and also offshore money.

I think it will play out as the idea is to keep getting ready, as India keeps you know getting stronger. I think more foreign money will come into India. I think building capabilities, access, I think we were always very strong in Japan. Now this JV gives us an access to Europe.

Divyansh Gupta
Analyst, Latent PMS

Got it. Just one last question. Like in India, we have feeder funds going into U.S., right? Let's say there will be a Vanguard fund or a JP Morgan Fund. Not specifically related to Nippon, but generally as an industry level, is there anything moving towards making a fund of fund kind of structure being made available in India so that actually the retail money can come in? Because I understand I think the GIFT City here, but the ticket size or the GIFT City will also be higher, but the feeder fund can actually drive much more retail AUM. Is there any work at an industry level to create feeder fund coming into India?

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

I think I will not be able to comment on behalf of the industry. I think as a company, our focus is always keeping investor in mind. I think as and when we feel there is an appetite and there's a need, I think, we will be open to launch it. To your earlier question, having DWS with us, you know, and DWS is one of the largest international players both in or also in ETF space, you know, ETF and passives, you know. There could be, I wouldn't want to say it will happen, but depending as and when there's a need from the investors and a demand from the investors, we feel we're in a strong position to launch products like these.

Divyansh Gupta
Analyst, Latent PMS

Got it. Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. That was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Sundeep Sikka
Managing Director and CEO, Nippon Life India Asset Management

Okay, thank you all for taking the time to join us on the call today. If you have any other further queries, we will be happy to address the same post the call. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. On behalf of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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