Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Poonawalla Fincorp Limited Q2 FY 2025-2026 earnings conference call. We have with us today on the call Mr. Arvind Kapil, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Sunil Samdani, Executive Director; Mr. Shriram Iyer, Chief Credit and Analytics Officer; and other senior management officials. 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 any assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Arvind Kapi l, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Poonawalla Fincorp Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you. A very good evening to all of you. I wish you all and family a happy and prosperous Diwali. It's a pleasure to interact with all of you. Let me begin with a broad, quick sense and the industry perspective that I see that translates, I believe, into the growth story that we are following right now. If you look at the domestic economy activity, it remains resilient in our assessment and is expected to maintain momentum. I believe supported by key domestic drivers like GST reforms, moderation in the inflation, a cut in the CRR repo rates. I also see that GDP expansion has been very robust in quarter one. Now, coming specifically to Poonawalla Fincorp , we are currently in an intensive investment phase that is strategically designed to drive long-term predictable, sustainable profitability with a risk-first and governance-first approach.
This expansion will enable us to achieve stronger operating leverage, result in lower credit cost ratios that we are aspiring, higher sustained profitability, and of course, improved ROAs. Let me give you some precise points, a sense of the key highlights for the quarter. Our AUM grew at around 68% year-on-year, 15.6% quarter-on-quarter, standing at INR 47,701 crore as on September 30th, 2025. Total disbursements in quarter two financial year 2026 grew by around 16% quarter-on-quarter in comparison to 13.6% growth in quarter one. Disbursements have almost doubled on a year-on-year basis. Our new product disbursement stands at approximately INR 750 crore for the month of September. The whole idea was to give you guys a sense as to how the ground-level traction is playing out for the new products that we launched, probably not more than five, six months ago.
New product contribution to disbursement in quarter two financial year 2026 stands at 17% compared to 11% in comparison to the previous quarter, which is quarter one. Our on-book secured mix stands at 56%. Shares worth around INR 1,500 crore have been infused by the promoter, you're well aware of that, through the preferential issue on the private placement in quarter two, which reinforces the promoter's confidence. Net interest margin stands at 8.4% in quarter two versus 8.32% in quarter one. It's an uptick of around 8 basis points. I think it started to move up. Our gross NPA for quarter two stands at 1.59% versus 1.84% in quarter one, 2026. It's a drop of 26 basis points. I would treat this as a pretty important and noteworthy.
Noteworthy, I would treat it because if you really go into the details, then you see the gross NPA, it remains stable in absolute terms too, which is the absolute cost of INR 711 crore this quarter as against INR 712 crore last quarter, despite the growth. So the 1.59%, I think, would be fairly solid in my assessment. Our stage one asset growth to 97.1%. Another point that I would treat as pretty solid for our foundation that we've reached, as compared to 96.5% in quarter one. Now, why are stage one assets important? Because this reflects stronger asset quality and stable borrowing performance. This is, in my experience, a true representation of times to come on the credit cost. If your stage one asset rises to 97.1%, even if you see industry standards, you would be fairly on a strong wicket compared to probably the competing landscape.
This improvement underscores our continued focus on prudent underwriting and effective risk management. Both G NPA as well as stage one assets, I think, is a significant turning point if I have to look at the future in terms of our credit costs. Our stated objective is to achieve one of the best, stint-class credit costs. With that, we stand by. These two indicators that I just gave you are, I think, on a fairly solid wicket. We've launched around six, seven businesses. They will pick up scale in different proportions over years. You will have the same calibration playing in the range of 1.5%- 2% as the new product contribution gets more representative insights. They're better yields, they're more representative insights, and we are very excited about the momentum. Our cost of borrowing has dropped from 8.04% to 7.69%. That's around 35 basis points.
One of the key levers was non-convertible debentures contribution, which has substantially increased from 7% in March 2025. As of June 2025, it reached 24% and now close to around 35% approximately till date, adding strength. That's now, as of now, adding strength to long-term capital funding. Our aim is to ensure stable and cost-efficient funding. We had promised the markets that our non-convertible debentures will come up within a year or two. We're happy to share that it's already ranging in the range of 30%- 35%. This, I think, will be a very strong sense, not just as a strength in terms of drop in borrowing cost. It also adds a lot of stability from a risk management on the liability side because you start developing that market in terms of long-term funding.
On AI, this quarter, we've identified, again, 10 incremental products on top of the 35 existing ongoing projects that we had last year, sorry, last quarter, taking our total tally to 45 cutting-edge AI projects with specifics. Out of these, 16 projects are live. Also, to highlight, we're doing some AI projects in finance and operations that will strengthen our governance for our initiatives. Let's quickly move on to the business highlights. Now, let me now take you through a detailed update on our businesses. Our lab book grew at around 136% year-on-year, 23% quarter-on-quarter. Similarly, the book B usiness Loans portfolio grew by 54% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter. Now, specifics to the new businesses to give you a sense. Prime P L, launched with a focus in August 2024, continues to demonstrate strong momentum in market acceptance.
In quarter two, financial year 2026, average monthly disbursals have reached approximately INR 400 crore, underscoring healthy traction and growing customer demand. A noteworthy milestone is that around 26% of disbursements in quarter two, financial year 2026, were processed through a fully straight-through journey with zero manual intervention in credit operations. We are very, very excited about this part because this absolutely strengthens our promise to go for external customers successfully on the digital journey. It reflects a well-calibrated growth strategy combined with robust business expansion and sets a strong foundation for scalable tech lending as well. Next is Gold Loans. As our digital products are scaling rapidly, we're also enhancing our physical presence, especially through the Gold Loan branches. We are fully operational now at 160 branches as we speak, with another 20 to be launched shortly across Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
Gold adds strength to our secured book of products. To give a sense, monthly disbursement figures move approximately to INR 110 crore in September 2025 from INR 28 crore in June 2025. We are seeing a constant increase in productivity across branches. We are on track to meet our objective of launching 400 branches by March 2026, out of which 95% of these branches will come up in tier two and tier three markets in line with our strategy to create multi-product distribution points in high-potential locations. Moving to the consumer durable loans snapshot, as of September 2025, we're live with 10,000+ dealer distribution points spread across 190 locations approximately. We're confident to hit 12,000 dealership distribution points by the end of the year, as we had committed. The business traction is building well. The market response is substantially better than our expectations.
To give a sense, we almost doubled the disbursement value to approximately INR 65 crore in September from June 2025. Confident to keep on multiplying the customer acquisition through this business. This business will create a massive customer franchise for Poonawalla Fincorp at a fairly accelerated level on very well-calibrated homes. We've started penetrating regional retail chains, which will help us increase our distribution strength. We've already onboarded several major mobile OEMs and are also moving on onboarding leading OEMs in the consumer durable space. We would also like to highlight our PFIN EMI card, which has been receiving great customer acceptance in the market. Customers have pre-approved offers that they can utilize as per their convenience at any of our now 10,000 dealer touchpoints. 94% of our consumer durable loans customers acquired in September 2025 have taken our PFIN EMI cards.
We will soon be launching the card on our website and app for direct customers as well and build that strength. In the Commercial Vehicle business, almost all business metrics have doubled. Beginning with disbursals, which have doubled, have reached approximately INR 100 crore in September 2025 as against June. The geographical footprint of the CV business has widened to 49 locations till September 2025 as against 27 locations in June 2025. Our channel distribution has more than doubled and has strengthened to 450 channel partners as of September 2025. Finally, we've successfully launched new Commercial Vehicle business through quarter two 2026 and have disbursed INR 50 crore during the quarter. This will complement our primary business segment, which is used Commercial Vehicle Loans. CV business is now live in all 12 states as part of our phase one geo-expansion plan.
Education Loans, a quick snapshot on a field six months after launching the business, we've logged in over 10,000 files, have onboarded 200 consultants and strategic partners. During this whole season, we've disbursed a milestone of INR 100 crore in a single month. As of September, we have approximately 1,000 customers. By the end of 2026, we're poised to scale our network to 500+ education consultants and leverage on our unique instant sanction product offering. The idea is to focus on building the distribution and focus on post-grads as a core segment. On shopkeeper loans, we are undergoing targeted calibration to achieve our desired risk benchmarks over a couple of quarters, following which we will scale up our holdings. Now, let me take you through our scale of distribution network. I think it's important to pause here and understand the strength.
We're continuously broadening our reach through our combined physical and digital channels to ensure greater accessibility and convenience for our customers. Key distribution channels for us are: we are live with 160 Gold Loan branches as against 80 branches last quarter. We're tracked for 400 branches by March 2026, a significant increase in our physical footprint. Strengthening our DSA network across LA Business Loans, Personal Loans to improve market leverage and efficiency. Quarter-on-quarter, it's increasing. Quantum leap in consumer durable dealer distribution points from 3,000 in June 2025 to 10,000 points in September, which is a jump over 3x from the previous quarter. We've doubled our education counselors from 100 in the last quarter to 200. Collaborating with 450+ Commercial Vehicle Loans against 200 in June 2025, effectively doubling our presence in the quarter for the customer acquisition.
Rolling out industry-first end-to-end digital journeys across various products to enhance customer onboarding and service. Enhancing our experience on the website and digital platforms to strengthen online customer acquisition and engagement. Leveraging technology-driven marketing strategies to target new customer segments with precision and efficiency, which I'll cover in a little detail later. Now, let me cover the critical strategic pillars that will differentiate us as we scale: digital transformation, digital marketing, and artificial intelligence and dev strategy. I think these four I'd like to cover to give you a sense because there's a fair amount of work happening, which will play out as we scale. I'll provide a comprehensive overview for each domain to illustrate the key initiatives underway. I believe this could be a multiplier effect to generate for our businesses. The first pillar, quick one, is digital transformation.
PFL has embarked on digitization and automation initiative for its operational processes that are leveraged across the lifecycle of the loan. While this would cover the entire lifecycle of the loan, the current digitized plan covers loan servicing, regulatory and compliance reporting, EMI presentation, and payments, which will strengthen our governance-first approach. On loan servicing, this will reduce the turnaround to action customer requests for foreclosures, part payment, auto refunds, and TDS certificates. Additional channels of WhatsApp and SMS for delivering customer documents will be introduced, complementing the current channels like email. Regulatory and compliance reporting will be made faster while maintaining accuracy through various digital initiatives like CIC reporting automation across systems and automation of CKYC update. Straight-through processing of EMI mandate will ensure faster payment application and reduce manual effort. These digitization initiatives will be implemented in the next two quarters.
Overall, these initiatives will ensure faster turnaround on operational activities, reduce manual errors, increase scalability of operations, and support the planned business growth without equivalent incremental costs in operations. The most important is the more you automate pieces like operations and finance, the closer you get to solid governance because it's absolutely least audit trails and it's the right way to build the building blocks of the company from here on to the next 12 months. PFL has also embarked on automation in finance on a similar governance-first approach, high on compliance and system-driven process in the finance function. This would be achieved by maximizing automation of intermediary processes to deliver seamless financial workflows. Automation is planned across multiple work streams, including budget control, reconciliations, regulatory reporting, liquidity management, payouts, and taxation, to name a few.
The budget control automation shall facilitate system-driven budget tracking and variance across departments, improving financial governance and enabling data-driven decision-making. In liquidity management, the daily computation of liquidity coverage ratio will be automated. The indirect tax automation will include automation of state-level distribution of the input tax credit on common services. Overall, net then the finance automation results in a hand-off system-driven, more efficient finance operation in the next 9- 12 months. Both automation in finance and operations clearly are walking the talk on governance in my limited view. Now, coming to digital marketing at Poonawalla Fincorp , we've taken significant strides in strengthening our digital presence in the last one year. First, we're increasing our channel partners for our digital acquisition.
While Google and Meta remain important pillars of our digital acquisition ecosystem, we'll now build capabilities to scale our presence even beyond these platforms by partnering with over 30 digital affiliates and publisher networks. This approach has already delivered remarkable results, with disbursements growing multifold in just four months. We're committed to exploring even more innovative channels and ways to ensure a well-balanced and diversified acquisition mix that drives sustainable growth. Second, important drives cost efficiencies through the tech innovation. We have been laser-focused in optimizing the entire customer journey to improve the final conversion and manage our acquisition cost. By working closely with Google, we've built a real strong, real-time information sharing to our campaigns that enhances our cost efficiencies. We will continue new experiments and technology interventions to build strengths onto our new campaigns.
Third, strengthening our app and website infrastructure for organic growth, very important initiative for us. Continuing our efforts on strengthening our app, we've added new features, improved its UI/UX, along with 21+ other enhancements, resulting in a significant improvement in our [PS] ratings and 44% growth in our app installs versus last quarter. We've also invested heavily in enhancing our website performance, focusing on faster page speeds, improved discoverability, and reduced load time, leading to a 21% increase in non-paid traffic versus last quarter. These efforts have laid the foundation to now shift towards strong content-led organic growth across both traditional and generative AI search and drive accelerated organic traffic to our platforms. Fourth, we're building a martech-driven growth engine, which is another key area of our focus that has been the build-out of cutting-edge martech architecture to support our growth ambitions. Fifth, strengthening our brand through social campaigns.
Finally, we're committed to building a stronger, more engaged brand presence with our latest festive social campaign that we have recently released. We aim to drive awareness of our brand promise of being the most trusted financial services brand. A noteworthy aspect of this campaign is that its production is AI-led, including visuals, music, and even vernacular translations. We strongly believe that by leveraging AI analytics and martech and the customer-centric approach, we're building a scalable, sustainable acquisition model. Let me cover the third and important pillar, that's AI, on the overall game plan. At the very outset, we had shared our vision to become an AI-first organization with analytics and AI positioning as the foundation pillars of a transformational journey, with several AI solutions being built in-house to strengthen internal capabilities, a few being developed in collaboration with strategic vendor partners to accelerate delivery and scale.
We have mapped out incrementally 10 AI projects, which takes our total tally now to 45 AI projects across the organization. We are truly excited with this. Let me give you a sense. In taxation, for example, we're solutioning the TDS receivable consolidation process within the taxation function to eliminate manual reconciliation across multiple systems. Leveraging AI, the solution will extract, format, and consolidate data into standardized TDS registers, enabling accurate year-wise reconciliation. AI-driven anomaly detection will enhance data integrity, reduce errors, and support compliance. Imagine the next one. First, an AI-powered speech analytics platform that can enable 100% automated audits of outbound calls, eliminating manual sampling, enhancing compliance oversight, and delivering deep behavioral insights across agent performance, sentiment, and scripted errors. It will proactively flag risk events such as mis-selling or unprofessional language, enable real-time supervision and intervention, and sharper lead conversion strategies.
Third, a Gen AI voice bot is designed in-house to automate L1-level customer interactions, handling initial screening, data capture, and intelligent call routing. This will significantly improve human agent productivity and ensure consistent multilingual engagement at scale with capability to manage up to 30,000 calls concurrently. Both solutions will drive measurable gains in audit coverage, lead qualifications, and operational efficiency. The fourth most important is, as part of our operational AI strategy, we're introducing a modular agentic AI workflow to streamline branch disbursal processes for LA and Business Loans products. This system automates 70%- 80% of market efforts through six intelligent agents covering data capture, credit assessment, collateral validation, fraud checks, disbursal readiness, and a human check interface. Built on a compliance-first, explainable AI architecture that integrates OCR policy engines and external APIs to ensure transparency, auditability, and alignment with regulatory norms.
The fifth, as part of our AI-first strategy to strengthen risk governance and operational efficiencies, we've launched Risk Hindsight Automation Initiative under the CPA Automation Phase One, aimed at reducing manual sampling and enabling scalable rule-based hindsight execution. The solution leverages AI-powered OCR to extract and classify key documents like PAN, Aadhaar, and bank statements and salary slip, followed by automated checklist validation to determine first-time right or first-time not right status. It performs basic credit checks, including geo limit validation, age tenor, income thresholds, employment stability, and EMI bounce detection. Every action is logged for auditability with structured output and evidence banks. In credit, the sixth one, the proposed AI-driven fraud control management project aims to enhance fraud detection in retail lending by automating the analysis of customer-submitted documents such as identity proofs, address verification, bank statements, salary slips, and property records.
Using the advanced AI and machine learning model, the system will intelligently read, extract, cross-validate data across documents and applications, and assess the probability of fraud. This initiative has significantly improved detection accuracy and reduced manual review time. Seventh: next, the proposed AI document digitization and data automation project aims to streamline data processing in retail lending by automating the reading, extraction, and summarization of customer-submitted documents such as identity proof, address verification, bank statements, and salary slip, leveraging AI-powered documentation, parsing, and natural language processing. The system will accurately digitize and interpret relevant data. In compliance, the eighth one, we've unveiled an AI-powered solution, [Reg Intel], designed to autonomously address queries related to internal guidelines and regulatory frameworks. In strategy, AI-driven RPA, this initiative is designed to create intelligent agents that execute tasks based on user-defined instructions and objectives while maintaining process governance through human-in-the-loop interaction.
The agent performs routine actions autonomously but prompts the user for critical steps, such as completing payment transactions or submitting applications, ensuring compliance and oversight. Tenth: the completion mapping. The completion mapping project aims to deliver real-time AI-powered insights into the competitive landscape, enabling data-driven strategic decisions and improving our ability to respond to market forces. These are the 10 AI projects. The whole idea is to have every small and large piece of the organization walking the road of AI and building your skill sets around it, and efficiency is kicking in thereafter. Finally, let me talk about our liability debt strategy. Just to reiterate, the cost of borrowing I shared with you has improved to 7.69% from 8.05%, a 35 basis point improvement. As part of our long-term debt strategy, it's personally driven by all of us.
We'll continue to focus on raising NCDs to optimize the borrowing costs and improve diversification of the borrowing mix. That's the important part here. I'm again happy to inform you that in line with the guidance, we've successfully raised INR 23,555 crore through secured NCDs during quarter two, a total of INR 7,800 crore during H1. As a result, the share of NCDs in our total borrowing has increased from 7% to 27% as of September. As we speak, we've raised an additional INR 3,000 crore, so we are heading towards the 30%- 35% on a steady state basis. That's what we're aiming for. This increase in NCD also contributes to significant diversification of our base.
Awards and recognition, I'm very proud to announce that we have been felicitated with the most innovative practice for our AI-powered underwriting and AI-powered hiring at the prestigious CII National Awards for Artificial Intelligence 2025, highlighting our continued commitment in digital transformation through AI. We've also been awarded the most innovative digital journey for Education Loans, which underscores our commitment to build the best-in-class industry-first journey across products. Additionally, we've been awarded the winner in the future of work at FICCI National HR Innovation Awards of 2025 for our talent acquisition AI solutions. Finally, thanks for your patience. To summarize, we've methodically implemented our plans across every business front, from product launches to asset growth and risk controls, including our digital transformation through AI initiatives. Our AUM growth trajectory is looking robust and very well risk-calibrated.
We've continuously optimized the borrowings through secured NCDs and our new product disbursals on a very healthy, robust growth trajectory, even at a healthy rate. We have plans to achieve healthy ROAs through lower credit costs and efficient product mix. Our diversified investments, technology-led transformation, and distribution expansion are laying a strong foundation for growth, operational efficiency, and sustainable profitability in the coming quarters. With this now, I'd like to hand over to Shriram to give you a flavor on the risk management.
Thank you. Thank you, Arvind. Good evening, everyone. Recently, there has been a pivotal evolution in India's indirect tax framework, the GST 2.4. This evolution is signaling a strategic shift in policy direction aimed at enhancing compliance, transparency, and efficiency. The reduction of GST in major categories is projected to foster consumption, credit demand, and MSME growth.
The reclassification of goods and services is expected to lower household expenditure, encouraging spending, particularly during the high demand period, such as the festive season. Strategically, GST 2 aligns with the government's broader objective of fostering inclusive economic expansion and reinforcing India's growth momentum. This, accompanied with the RBI proposal on strengthening the credit quality assessment tool by moving to a weekly bureau reporting, would make credit reports more current and reliable for lenders. Reforms released by the government and calibrated recommendation on strengthening credit quality framework resonate to provide a healthy credit core demand and supply equation. Poonawalla Fincorp has been able to ride the growth momentum wave with a risk-calibrated approach, ensuring sustainable, predictable business growth. The collaborative efforts across risk, credit, and collections have supported to build a calibrated book, resulting in a superior risk-adjusted return.
Focusing on the asset quality, let me give you a glimpse of the key trends. The G NPA has improved to 1.59% in quarter two, FY 2026, versus 1.84% in quarter one, FY 2026. In absolute terms, G NPA is at INR 711 crore for quarter two, FY 2026, versus INR 712 crore in quarter one, FY 2026, indicating stable asset quality. Over the last sequential quarter-on-quarter improvement in stage one, stage two, and stage three composition of assets and advances, which highlights our calibrated approach to portfolio expansion and strengthened debt management practices. On stage one composition in quarter two, it was spoken about a little earlier. It was FY 2026 is at 97.1% versus 96.5% in quarter one, FY 2026. Also, on the stage two composition in quarter two, FY 2026 is at 1.3% versus 1.6% in quarter one, FY 2026.
Stage three composition in quarter two, FY 2026 is at 1.6% versus 1.8% in quarter one, FY 2026. The quarterly credit cost has remained range-bound at 2.67% for quarter two, FY 2026, versus 2.61% in quarter one, FY 2026, for the overall PFL book. For the 12 core products, the annualized credit cost is at 1.51% for quarter two, FY 2026. Our stated objective is to achieve best-in-class credit costs in the industry. For us to do that, we will normalize the STPL and instant loan book to reasonable levels, and the mix will show a declining trend as other products will start gaining full-scale participation in the product basket. We have launched six to seven businesses to our existing product suite. All the new businesses are picking up scale in different quarters and different years and different proportions.
Once all these start gaining adequate composition, gold will be having a fairly strong delivery model and distribution. Education Loans will be strongly focused towards postgraduates. Likewise, Commercial Vehicle and LA will also have a strong secured product foundation. Even if you look at unsecured, we will have a higher bias to salaried segment, and with our digital journeys, we get the first strike to refuse. You'll have the same calibration playing out closer to the best-in-class credit cost in the industry as the contribution of the new products gets more representative in size. As these factors, all these factors put together, will support building a very strong credit-calibrated book and credit cost with downward bias on a year-on-year basis.
With reference to the erstwhile STPL, the credit empowerment charge to P&L in FY 2025 and attributed to the erstwhile STPL book was INR 1,339 crore on an average assets under management of INR 4,839 crore. This was out of the overall credit empowerment charge to P&L of INR 1,553 crore, representing 27.67% for the financial year 2025. In the last quarter, the credit empowerment on the erstwhile STPL book was INR 64 crore, and in quarter two, FY 2026 is INR 57 crore. The erstwhile STPL book, which was 4% of the total on-book AUM as of June 2025, is now down to approximately 2% as of September 2025, of which 70% is zero DPD, and the book is adequately provided. The worst is behind us. We are excited as we look into the future quarters.
Further, let me give a short deep dive on select areas as we build our AUM. A comprehensive overhaul of our instant digital consumer loan policy and control framework was done that aimed at strengthening credit risk management and improving portfolio performance. We have incorporated specific correction and calibration driven by six to seven enhanced controls beyond account aggregator to improve the credit quality. This multi-prong risk framework covered the multi-bureau strategy, augmented with cohort-level risk models, industry fraud alert controls, identity triangulation framework, introduction of channel pre-screening criteria, alternate data-driven profiling, geo-risk intelligence enabling location risk categorization, and enhanced predictive risk framework. These refinements have supported building a better calibrated instant digital consumer book. To ensure agility and responsiveness, a dynamic monitoring mechanism was put in place to track disbursal patterns and early risk indicators. This allowed for timely interventions and policy recalibration based on observed performance trends.
As a result of these strategic changes, the latest first EMI bounce has improved by 70% compared to the erstwhile STPL book, while also having a 40% better collection efficiency. Collection management is another core pillar at Poonawalla Fincorp , wherein we are reimagining collections as a core strategic capability anchored in automation, real-time data intelligence, and AI. Scorecards have been deployed across every stage of the customer lifecycle, from pre-delinquency to recovery, that enable precision targeting and differentiated strategies. Each digital ML and AI capability, scorecards, automated allocations, intelligent communications, and Gen AI productivity tools create impact individually, but together, they unlock a multiplier effect supporting higher efficiency, lower cost, and better customer experience. To balance information to action, Gen AI-based tools are in development to optimize actionable insights for every manager daily, enhancing decision speed and field productivity across levels.
As I conclude, our commitment is anchored in a robust risk-first framework that leverages data-driven decision-making, advanced analytics, and digital innovation. This integrated approach not only strengthens our governance and responsiveness, but also empowers us to deliver consistent results with long-term sustainability. Guided by this philosophy, we remain focused on driving impact through precision, agility, and continuous transformation. Thank you all and wishing you and your families happy Diwali.
Thank you, Shriram, and good evening, everyone. Let me give you a quick financial highlights for the quarter. The assets under management stood at INR 47,701 crore, reporting a strong growth of 68% year-on-year and 15.6% quarter-on-quarter. This is with the help of continued strong momentum across all our products. Part of our debt strategy and the projected AUM growth, we continue to further diversify our liability book with special focus on increasing the share of NCDs. Accordingly, the share of long-term borrowing has gone up by approximately 5% quarter-on-quarter, from 75% to 80% in the overall borrowings. The share of variable rate borrowing stood at 55%, with another 10% of capital market borrowings, with an average tenor of approximately three months, puts us at an advantageous position in a declining interest rate environment.
Our net interest income, including fee and other income, continues to grow healthy, standing at INR 905 crore for Q2 of FY 2026, which is up 17.8% quarter-on-quarter. This is despite increasing share of secured asset books and recalibration of first-wide STPL portfolio. The cost of borrowing dropped to 7.69% for the quarter versus 8.04% in Q1 of FY 2026. This is on account of overall reduction in interest rate and increase in capital market borrowings. OpEx to AUM ratio was stable at 4.8% as we continue to invest in new businesses and distribution. In line with our growth strategy, during the quarter, we increased the employee base to 5,081 and expanded our branch network to 260 + currently. The pre-provisioning operating profit during the quarter was INR 387 crore, which is a 19.1% increase quarter-on-quarter.
Our asset quality improved quarter-on-quarter with gross NPA at 1.59%, resulting in a 25 bps reduction quarter-on-quarter. Net NPA stood at 0.8581%. Our provisioning coverage ratio stood at 49.65%. Our profit after tax stood at INR 74 crore during the quarter. This is despite the company making significant investments in new businesses, branches, AI, and technology. The debt equity ratio stood at 3.64 x. This gives us enough headroom for growth. The capital adequacy ratio continues to remain healthy and comfortably above the regulatory requirement at 20.85%, of which the tier one capital is 19.63%. The liquidity coverage ratio stood at 141% as on September 30th, 2025. On the liquidity front, we remain comfortable with positive cumulative mismatch across all buckets and surplus liquidity of INR 6,261 crore as of September 30th, 2025. Thank you. Happy Diwali. I would now like to open the floor for question and answer session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one on your touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have the first question on the line of Chintan Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Sir, just on the OpEx front, it's INR 518 crore of OpEx.
Can you say something slightly louder? I can't hear you.
Sure. Hello. Is it better?
Yeah, much better.
Yeah, sir. First of all, thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. On the OpEx front, largely, I wanted to understand, of this INR 518 crore of OpEx, what will be the split of the OpEx in terms of the part for the non-employee cost? How much of that would be towards this technology initiative that you have been taking? What would be towards probably outsourcing or the DSA cost? Just first thing on that.
Chintan, we've not given a breakup right now on the same, but I think what's important is, if I remember the figures, we were close to, we had given a guidance of being crossing 5x, but we are close to 4.8 x AUM. I like to normally look at OpEx cost as a percentage to AUM because all of it is getting used for those seven businesses that we've actually calibrating and building the whole distribution. Our efficiencies for this year, I have already stated, should be measured on how efficiently we can build AUMs. I mean, that's the kind of an answer which I think at this junction would be more appropriate.
Okay. Sure. This probably you can ask it differently. The end of like our current sourcing.
Louder, louder, please.
Sure. Sorry, sir. Just to ask something in a different manner. In terms of our current sourcing mix across the products, how much of that would be branch-driven and how much of that would be via fintech partners or DSA or any other sources? Basically, just trying to understand direct sourcing via Poonawalla 's own network and indirect sourcing. Any breakup or any numbers on that would be really helpful.
Let me, for a moment, start with a breakup like what do we acquire from our own sources and what do we acquire from partners? Let me, for a moment, split that. I think it'll be a mix of close to 18%- 20% will be on our own reliance, self-reliance, and the rest would be still a mix of DSAs, fintech partners, and various distributions that we rely on. We've reached close to 18% 20% acquisition happens with self-reliance.
Okay, sir. Self-reliance would basically mean the branches.
Robust.
Yeah, that would largely mean branches, right? Or anything apart from that as well?
No. Even our website, by the way, our digital journeys, if you, what I announced, PL, if you take, for example, even PL Prime , the digital part is almost 25% of what we do now on a monthly basis. If you see, even the Prime business, we are pretty robust. Similarly, we are building various digital journeys. The reason I shared our marketing plans of using Google and Meta was to tell you that is basically a hint in the direction that we are doing a fair amount to make our awareness in the virtual world, to build that strength, to rapidly expand our acquisition directly on all digital acquisitions that we do today.
Understood. Just any ballpark or sense on what this number could look like: 18%, 20% by FY 2027 or FY 2028?
To be honest, the plan is to grow it. I mean, it should be year-on-year growing. It's difficult to say what number it'll be. Self-reliance would be an important initiative for us. It should grow upwards and grow in a growing direction because the businesses we are acquiring obviously have much better book cost, have much better efficiencies, and much more self-reliant.
Sure. Understood. Just one last thing, just happening on this again.
As your customer franchise, sorry Chintan, I'll just add one more.
No worries.
As your customer franchise grows, remember one thing: as your cross-sell base grows, the number of customers actually coming back to us on the initiatives of marketing as well as on the in-house reliance substantially would go upwards. It's just that we have a very good acceptability with external customer base as well. I would not like to decrease that, as far as possible while growing our internal strengths. See, look at our consumer durable. While that might be dependent initially on the point of acquisition of those 10,000 outlets that we've got, what happens a year or two later when the cross-sell starts? You have the same, probably, let's say, approximately 300,000- 400,000 customers initially acquired, go to 1,000,000- 1,500,000 customers next year.
All this cross-sell which starts creates multiple customers at much lower cost, increases your customer franchise by a very significant proportion over last year, even now, and it'll increase substantially over the next year. This will create a far more environment for self-reliance.
Sure. Understood. Just one last thing, what would this number be around in March 2025 quarter, that is Q4 FY 2025? This would be how much, around 10%, 12%?
I think you should take it as 18% to 20%. I don't think, okay, I mean, I haven't mastered every quarter-on-quarter from the exact number, but I can tell you that number one thing, self-reliance is increasing, but I'm also building multiple distributions. Like in Education Loans, we are building an entire franchise I shared with you on, that entire distribution.
Oh, that's fantastic.
We are building on counselors. On Commercial Vehicle , we've gone to 400+ dealers. On consumer durable, we are building a whole 10,000 outlets, going to 12,000, maybe 20,000 next year. With this kind of thing, we are building almost five, six distributions. That's why if you heard my second or third page when I was, I actually took out some time to recalibrate for you. One of the big strengths the company is building, I realize, in my limited assessment is you're building multiple distributions.
Yeah.
One strength could be in-house in that. Otherwise, we are also calibrating and building multiple distributions across Gold Loans, across geographies, across our digital penetration, across various products that we've launched.
Sure, this is super useful, and I'll probably get back in the queue for the questions.
Yeah. All the deliverables also, which is the brass tacks. Quarter-on-quarter, we are almost either doubling or tripling stuff, and we are moving at a very healthy rate. All the projections that we had done for this year, we do expect most of the run rates to be fairly more robust than our plans.
Thank you so much, sir, for the detailed answer. Thank you.
No, thanks for coming in.
All the best.
Thanks.
Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Nischint Chawathe from Kotak Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Nischint here from Kotak. Just a small one. Thanks for the detailed introduction, but just a small one is, if I look at your coverage on stage one loans, and you know that has kind of come up quite significantly from 2.8% to 2.7%. I understand that, you know, obviously, there is a big change in the composition of the book. I think as you further add the secured assets, you know, where do you really see this settling down? The other one also is that, you know, when you are just about starting these businesses, you obviously have an internal track record of JPDs and NGDs. How do you kind of work out this number?
Could you be?
Likewise for stage two.
Second question?
Yeah. When you start building out some of these businesses, those business lines which Poonawalla has probably not done in the past, how do you kind of assess the PDs and LGDs and hence work out the stage one or two coverage ratios?
Yeah, why don't you? Yeah.
Yeah, you're right that stage one, if you see, has been increasing significantly, and it is across 97%, 97.12% to be precise as in September. The ECL provision, across stages, it's a well-provided book. The way the PD, LGD, for the new clients, new to PFL also. At product level, because for each of the products, we may not have significant experience of our own, we have taken help of professional agencies.
A professional Managing Director who's done all these businesses.
Yeah.
A professional team who's done this earlier.
Yeah, this is that they have mapped our product basket with a similar set of peer groups, and accordingly, the PD, LGD has been worked out at each product level.
I think, remember, none of these businesses I had said earlier as well are a surprise to us. Whether it's my risk team, whether it's the Chief Business Officers, we are well-versed with all these businesses. As a company, Poonawalla Fincorp Limited, you're absolutely right. These are new businesses, but it's a new Management Team who's probably done it for a couple of decades, and we come here with that experience. We are not new to the nuances of business, risk, collections. I can assure you this is all very planned and thought through, which is why you see stage one improving. If you notice, most companies, by the way, don't show stage one. It's quite interesting, I noticed, because you know stage one, to get that kind of thing, can give you a very clear indicator. I'm talking about the business guy, not a specialist or analyst.
Normally, stage one gives a very clear picture of the future.
To add to what the MD said, one, of course, we all have all the products have been done. We have been 21 years, 22 years. We have the experience of doing all these products. We also look at we have all the information today available with the bureaus, and we know each product, how do they perform across ticket sizes, geographies, and all of that. That also kind of helps us when we build those kind of lookalike customers. It's not that difficult to do that.
Got it. Got it.
Sequentially, we have improved over the last four quarters. That kind of gives you a sense in terms of what we are kind of handling now.
Got it. Got it. That answers my question. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Kaitav Shah from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Happy Diwali to the Management . Sir, just a couple of quick questions. Number one was on the STPL book. How is that shaping up? I think you mentioned in your commentary that it has been growing at a pretty good pace. If you can perhaps throw more light on that. Second was on the credit cost. That still remains at slightly sticky at 250 bps. How do you see that going ahead over the next one year or so?
Yeah, I think credit cost, why don't you cover it? It's easier to answer.
Coming to the part two of your question, see, if you look at our overall credit cost, it has been ranged down to around 2.67%. Stage one, stage two, and stage three assets have sequentially improved quarter on quarter. As a contribution of the core products, including the new product, keeps growing and gaining full-scale participation in the product basket, the share of the credit-calibrated instant loan book will be normalized to lower levels. This will have a favorable bias on the overall credit cost for the next three to five years. The strategy here is to continuously calibrate, and the product-based adjustments will aid in our stated objective in achieving our best-in-class credit costs in the industry.
Yeah. I think on the new instant loans, as I would like to call it now, with the calibration that I think Shriram Iyer's done over the six, seven calibrations, we are moving on a pretty decent level. Right now, on a monthly basis, quarter on quarter, it's taken an upward trend. We are quite pleased with the last 12 months' credit calibration. It's pretty much in line with where we are. The advantage is that as you go forward and you start getting your good quality cross-sales and stuff, I think we could see even a strength of ROA is going up on this one. Today, everything is new acquisition for us, not just here, across businesses. You'll appreciate across businesses, our strengths with new customers will start increasing. Same time next year, we could be on a very robust cross-sell.
We are building in a lot of efficiencies for ourselves. I think it's a very, let me be honest with you, we're excited about it. I think that gives you probably a feel.
Kaitav, I also, one point which I had kind of called out, the new calibrated book, we are seeing the bounce rates have come down 70% down. That kind of gives us the confidence, and the collection efficiency has also equally improved to 40%. With the product mix changing, this will have a bias towards the best-in-class credit quality.
Sure. Thank you so much, sir, and wish you all the best. Thank you.
Thank you. Happy Diwali, Kaitav. Thanks for coming in. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that was the last question. I now hand it over to the Management for closing comments.
No, I think we're sure all of you are very happy Diwali, and thanks for always being kind and supporting. We are looking confident and excited for the journey ahead. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a great weekend.
Thank you. On behalf of Poonawalla Fincorp Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.