Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the UTI Asset Management Company Limited's Q2 and H1FY26 earnings conference call. From the management, we have with us Mr. Imtaiyazur Rahman, Managing Director and CEO; Mr. Vetri Subramaniam, Managing Director and CEO Designate; Mr. Vinay Lakotia, Chief Financial Officer and Head Corporate Strategy; Mr. Surojit Saha, Group Financial Advisor; and Mr. Sandeep Samsi, Head of Investor Relations, Marketing, and Corporate Communications. We also have with us the Investor Relations team from @FactorsPR. 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's presentation may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. Please note the disclaimer mentioning these risks and uncertainties is on the disclaimer slide of the Investor Relations presentation that has been shared earlier. I would now hand the conference over to Mr. Imtaiyazur Rahman for opening remarks.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We are delighted to have you with us for the review of our financial and operational performance for the second quarter and half-year ended 30th September 2025. Our financial statements just released and investor presentation have been uploaded on the website of the stock exchanges, and we trust you have had the opportunity to review them. I have with me my distinguished colleagues, Mr. Vetri Subramaniam, MD and CEO Designate of UTI AMC; Mr. Vinay Lakotia, CFO and Head of Strategy; Mr. Surojit Saha, Chief Financial Advisor of the company; and Mr. Sandeep Samsi, Head of Investor Relations, Marketing, and Corporate Communications. Before I request Vetri to share with all of us about the macroeconomic view and industry update, I would like to share with you a few important developments in UTI AMC.
As many of you are aware, I have had the privilege of leading UTI AMC since 2018, guiding the company through its evolution into a listed entity and driving significant growth. Under our collective efforts, UTI AMC's market capitalization has grown threefold since our 2020 listing, surpassing INR 18,000 crore, with assets under management soaring from INR 3.99 lakh crore in 2019 to INR 22.42 lakh crore in September 2025. As a continuation of our succession plan and with full confidence in our next generation of leadership, the board has unanimously decided to appoint Mr. Vetri Subramaniam as incoming MD and CEO of UTI AMC with effect from 1st February 2026. 1st February marks UTI AMC's foundation day, and I believe it is a fitting moment for me to pass the baton to Vetri.
Vetri has been an integral part of our success story since joining UTI AMC in 2017, and his leadership, vision, and deep industry expertise make him the ideal choice to guide UTI in its next chapter. To ensure a seamless transition, I will serve as a strategic advisor to the MD/CEO from 1st February 2026 to 12th June 2026, supporting Vetri and his team. I am confident that under Vetri's leadership, UTI AMC will continue to deliver exceptional value to our customers, shareholders, and stakeholders while advancing our mission to help millions of Indians achieve their financial aspirations and also globally. Now I request Vetri to share with you the financial and other updates and the macroeconomic data of the industry as well as of UTI AMC. Vetri, over to you.
Thank you, Imtaiyaz. I will now, as Imtaiyaz suggested, go into the macroeconomic background of what has been happening. The last few months have brought volatility to the Indian markets amid rising geopolitical tension and also trade challenges. India's growth story remains resilient. This is underpinned by robust domestic demand, healthy private investment, and a vibrant services sector. Global conflicts and trade headwinds, like the U.S. tariffs, may momentarily slow manufacturing and exports, but India's structural strength is well intact. With steady infrastructure spending and firm consumer momentum, including the benefit of the recent GST rationalization, the economy is poised to maintain its lead among emerging markets in terms of growth. Indian equities and mutual funds turn the spotlight to that. In H1 of FY2026, we witnessed strong investor participation, particularly from retail investors. The industry portfolio count grew to 25.19 crore as of September 2025.
The retail mutual fund portfolios stood at 19.77 crore for September 2025, with retail AUM at INR 44.61 lakh crore for these categories. This is equity, hybrid, and solution-oriented schemes. Total industry AUM grew to INR 75.61 lakh crore as of September 2025, up from INR 75.19 lakh crore, reflecting a 0.56% increase month on month. Q2 also reflected some degree of investor caution. Equity MF inflows fell 9% to INR 30,422 crore in September, from INR 33,430 crore in the previous month. In September, the SIP stoppage ratio rose to 76.27%, up from 74.51% in August. Overall sentiment of retail investors remains strong. SIPs have reached a new milestone with record monthly contribution of INR 29,361 crore and 9.25 crore active accounts as against 8.98 crore posted in August. The SIP AUM is at INR 15.52 lakh crore for September 2025.
This amounts to 20.53% of total mutual fund industry assets. Moving on to the performance of UTI. In line with the industry, UTI Group's total AUM stood at INR 22.42 lakh crore as of 30th September. This is a growth of 11% from INR 20.16 lakh crore a year ago. Our mutual fund AUM reached INR 3.78 lakh crore compared to INR 3.43 lakh crore last year. At the end of Q2, as of 30th September, our portfolios stand at 1.36 crore. Considering the market volatility, our go-to-market strategy remains focused on the hybrid category of funds. I'm happy to share with you some of UTI AMC's achievements for the first half of FY2026. Our strategic vision continues to guide us as we expand across the vibrant B30 cities and the established top 30 markets.
B30 cities remain a cornerstone of assets, contributing approximately 80% of our AUM, and these markets are growing strongly. Technology is central to this journey. Our investor and distributor-facing apps have seen strong adoption, providing convenience and enhanced functionality to investors and distributors. The association with Salesforce and ONDC in their respective capacities has enhanced our potential significantly, whether it is our ability to keep engaged with our investors or with our partners, and also to facilitate ease of transaction for all investors. Financial literacy remains a key priority, and through our initiatives such as UTI Swatantra and FLIGHT, we continue to empower individuals with the knowledge to make informed investment decisions. As regards new fund launches, we launched the UTI Multicap Fund in May. This has been designed as an all-round investment solution and showcases the depth of our research capability.
It completes our product suite and is a distinctive proposition within our diversified equity offerings. As of 30th September, the fund had assets of INR 1,576 crore, around 67% more than what we collected during the NFO. Our distribution network continues to gain strength. Through targeted training and workshops, we've enhanced the collaboration between distributors, fund managers, and product teams. On the global front, the expansion of our New York office and progress on regulatory approvals in the DIFC have reinforced our cross-border advisory presence. Through these strategic endeavors, expanding reach, driving digital adoption, launching innovative products, empowering investors, and fortifying distribution, UTI Asset Management Company is firmly positioned to sustain growth and deliver long-term value to stakeholders in FY26 and the years beyond. Thank you for your continued trust and support.
I will now hand over to our Head of Investor Relations, Marketing, and Corporate Communications, Sandeep Samsi, who will brief you on more details regarding our performance. Over to you, Sandeep.
Thank you, sir. I will take you through UTI Mutual Fund's performance during the second quarter and half-year ended 30th September 2025. Talking about UTI Mutual Fund's performance, UTI was able to capture a market share of 6.2% of the gross sales of the industry during this quarter and a market share of 6.4% of the gross sales for the first half of the financial year 2026. Our active equity plus hybrid quarterly average AUM for the quarter ended September 2025 stood at INR 1,033,202 crore. Quarterly average AUM for index and ETF stood at INR 1,062,443 crore, up by 4.75% in the second quarter, commensurate with growth in the overall passive investment. ETF and index fund net inflows stood at INR 4,848 crore. UTI added 2.4 lakh portfolios, taking up the number of live portfolios to 1.36 crore as of 30th September 2025.
Our SIP AUM witnessed a growth of 5.9%, 5.98% over the corresponding quarter of last year, reaching to INR 42,267 crore as of September 2025. The SIP inflows for the second quarter stood at INR 2,338 crore. The SIP gross inflows for UTI Mutual Fund witnessed a year-on-year growth of 12.04%, with the average SIP ticket size being INR 3,273 for September 2025. For the first half of the year FY26, SIP inflows were INR 4,599 crore, higher by 17.70% as compared to INR 3,907 crore in the first half of FY25. An important update, pursuant to the meeting held on 23rd September 2025, the Board of Directors of UTI AMC approved the implementation of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, VRS, for select categories of employees effective from 1st of October 2025. As per the scheme, eligible employees can submit their VRS applications till 31st October 2025.
The financial impact of the scheme will be determined based on the actual number of applications received and will be communicated to the stock exchanges in due course in line with the regulatory requirements. As part of the VRS package, family pension benefits have also been revised. The one-time financial aspect of this revision, as per the actual valuation, is INR 25 crore, which has been fully accounted for in the financial results for this quarter. This initiative is designed to offer a structured and dignified exit framework for eligible employees while strategically realigning the workforce to support the organization's future business priorities. Coming to UTI AMC financials on a consolidated basis, during the second quarter, the core income of the company stood at INR INR 390 crore, up by 5% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter.
The consolidated core PAT for the second quarter is INR 107 crore, which includes the impact of revision in the family pension. Adjusted for the same, the normalized consolidated core PAT for the quarter is INR 127 crore, down by 5% year-on-year and up by 4% quarter-on-quarter. For the half-year, the consolidated core PAT was INR 228 crore, down by 8% year-on-year, and normalized consolidated core PAT, excluding the impact of family pension, is INR 248 crore, up by 1% year-on-year. On a standalone basis, during the second quarter, core income of the company on a standalone basis stood at INR 319 crore, up by 5% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter. Standalone core PAT for the second quarter is INR 104 crore, which includes the impact of family pension revision.
Adjusted for this, the normalized standalone core PAT for the quarter is INR 124 crore, up by 7% year-on-year and 5% quarter-on-quarter. For the half-year, the standalone core PAT was INR 221 crore, up by 3% year-on-year, and normalized core PAT, excluding the impact of family pension for the half-year, is INR 241 crore, up by 13% year-on-year. On the investment highlights in fixed income, we have witnessed consistent growth in liquid as well as non-liquid categories. On the equity side, our value-oriented scheme continued to do well over the three-year and five-year period. Some of our growth-oriented schemes have witnessed a pickup in performance over the last one year. By substantially increasing the fund managers' engagement with distributors in both the top 30 and B30 cities, we have strengthened our partnerships and enhanced strategic clarity around our fund offerings.
Reinforcing our commitment to investor education, we conducted 700-plus programs, including 250 sessions especially designed for the women investors. In the first half of the financial year 2026, more than 6,700 students participated in our Financial Literacy for Youth FLIGHT program, under which we conducted financial awareness sessions in colleges. Close to 70% of these students registered for the SEBI Investors Certification course, and out of these, 81% have already cleared the exam. On our IT and digital assets, we continue to invest strategically in technology infrastructure and adopting artificial intelligence, machine learning, and generative AI. We have amplified our security operations with a focus on cybersecurity. Last year, we partnered with Salesforce for marketing automation tools to send customized communication to our investors. A case study on this has been published now by Salesforce.
We have also associated with ONDC, that is the Open Network for Digital Commerce, and are available on the network for onboarding and financial transactions. 41% of our total gross sales for equity and hybrid funds are being mobilized through the digital platform in the quarter two of FY26. We have gone live with UTI Auto Pay implementation for SEBI via the UTI Auto Pay and at valid UPI handles as per the mandate given by MT. On UTI Pension Fund Limited, our 100% owned subsidiary UTI Pension Fund Limited has recorded a growth of 15.82% year-on-year in its AUM, reaching INR 3.89 lakh crore as on the quarter two of FY26, and currently, it manages 24.62% of the NPS industry's AUM. The PAT for the half-year is INR 28 crore, a decline of 3.4% year-on-year. The point of presence business that commenced recently has been performing well.
We currently operate through 31 branches across India and plan to take the total number of branches to 40 in FY26. In the first half of FY26, we added 119 clients. We are delighted to share that UTI PFL won the CNBC TV18 India Risk Management Award for the year 2024/2025. We have filed four new schemes under the Multi-Scheme Framework (MSF) based on the circular issued by PFRDA on 16 September 2025. On UTI International, UTI International has rebranded the logo as UTI Investments, reflecting a more contemporary identity to resonate strongly with international investors. The AUM at UTI International is $2.66 billion or INR 23,647 crore as on 30th September 2025. One of our popular funds, UTI India Dynamic Equity Fund, domiciled in Ireland, has an AUM of $874 million.
We successfully secured allocation into UTI IDEF from Europe despite a challenging market environment and have continued to sustain our assets. We have also strengthened coverage and business development through senior leadership hires across regions, bringing deep institutional expertise. On UTI Alternatives Private Limited, UTI Alternatives Private Limited has a total AUM of INR 2,669 crore as on 30th September 2025. This excludes the core investment portfolio management services of INR 162 crore. We have now successfully exited HDOC 1 in FY25. The HDOC 2 and HDOC 3 have active commitments of INR 755 crore, and the fund is currently in investing stage. We have launched the fourth fund of our HDOC series in quarter two, and this fund has been planned as an INR 1,500 crore fund. UTI Multi-Opportunities Fund 1 has an AUM of INR 1,598 crore. Currently, the fund is in investing stage.
UTI Real Estate Opportunities Fund 1 is currently in fundraising and is investing with commitments of INR 164 crore. We have initiated the process for upgrading the GIFT City FME license from non-retail to retail to allow launch of mutual fund schemes. I would now request the Managing Director and CEO for his concluding remarks.
Thank you, Sandeep, for sharing operational and financial updates of the company. Before we begin the question and answer, on behalf of the entire UTI family, I would like to wish you and your family happy Dhanteras and a prosperous Diwali. We may now open the forum for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touchtone phone. 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. Again, to register for a question, please press star and one. Our first question comes from the line of Mohit Mangal from Centrum. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is towards the flows. If I look at, you know, hybrid category, which is our main target category, last year we had around INR 19 billion of net inflows and even H2 was better. In H1, that actually kind of declined to around INR 4 billion. How can we capture more flows in this category? What are our major strategies towards that?
Yeah, hi Mohit. Vetri here.
Yeah.
That remains actually our focus in terms of the hybrid strategies, and that's just a function of where we think the market is both in terms of valuations as well as, actually, valuations of both equity and fixed income, which is why we think this is a sort of more appropriate part. There has been perhaps some churning of portfolios, but we are just doubling down on the push in terms of hybrid products. Our products, particularly the Multi-Asset Fund and the Aggressive Hybrid Fund, are already approved on several platforms. We are pushing there both for sales through lump sum mode as well as through the SIP mode. The Balanced Advantage Fund is a much younger fund for us, just about two years of track record, but it's done well over that period. Even there, we are increasingly pushing the market in terms of starting to get that incorporated.
As you know, many rating systems in the market typically look at at least three-year data before they start to recommend a product. Once we cross that hurdle sometime in the middle of this year, hopefully that product as well will make it onto some of the sales platforms. There may be some movement that you've seen over the last quarter, but I think we are happy with the trend that we see in terms of gross sales.
Okay. H2 should be better than H1, I presume.
Yeah, that is where our focus remains, and we've been doing a lot of distributor engagement over the last few months. There's a series of programs we are doing across the country, zone by zone. I think you will see some benefits of that.
Understood. My second question is towards the UTI International business. I think there has been around 8% decline, you know, if I compare H1 2026 versus 2025. Any activity over there?
The revenue decline that has happened over there is primarily because of two funds. One is UTI Finex Fund, which is similar to an FMP kind of a category, which has matured, and some redemption and mark-to-market impact on our UTI India Dynamic Equity Fund and UTI Innovation Fund, where we lost close to around INR 2,000 crore, primarily because of mark-to-market impact only. Hopefully, with the growth category style actually delivering better values over the last two or three quarters, we should see some meaningful inflows in UTI Dynamic Equity Fund going forward.
Understood. My last question.
To add some color to what Vinay said, keep in mind that you have to also see the change in AUM of that strategy in the background of the fact that in general, FPI appetite towards India is currently fairly, you know, cooled in that sense, right? There's been a net outflow. India as a category is actually not attracting too much flows at this point of time. Within that, I think the team has been reasonably successful in terms of getting some inverse client rotation. That is coming from what Vinay said, which is that when we look particularly at the last year, year and a half, the quality growth which underpins the IDEF strategy that we run has done quite well in terms of its alpha generation. That has enabled the sales team to get more clients in.
We need a point in time where overall appetite for India starts to increase for that number to grow.
Understood. No, no, that's helpful. My last question is towards, you know, in your opening remarks, you said that the impact of VRS is expected to be around INR 25 crore. Just wanted to know the math behind that as to how did you come, you know, with that number, if you could just explain.
No, no. What we shifted at that as part of a VRS package, the family pension amount was being revised. That, because of the revision in the family pension amount, the actuarial impact of that has been accounted for in quarter two. The actual impact of VRS will depend on how many number of people actually offer, and that we will be communicating sometime in maybe, in the later part of the month of November. Information will be sent out to the stock exchange of what the actual impact will be there in Q3 financials.
Mohit, this is a one-time expenditure. As per the accounting policy, based on the actuarial valuations, we need to account for it in the quarter of the incident. Therefore, since the scheme was launched on 23rd of September, as per the accounting standard requirement, we had to account for it in this quarter. It is a one-time expenditure. Let me give you the reason why this particular thing is a part of the package. We have a pension scheme, and this pension scheme, the family pension scheme, was not revised since 1994. The only thing people were getting was INR 5,300 family pension across the group of the employers, whether it is the Class 3, Class 4. I haven't seen them as many people. Therefore, we have just revised the family pension schemes. We did that in order to make sure that our Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) is successful.
We are seeing a good outcome, Mohit.
Understood. Thanks. That's very, very helpful. Thanks and wish you all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Just extending that question on the VRS thing. While you've not quantified the cost, you would have an estimate if 100% of the employees eligible for it accept the VRS. What would be the cost that can be seen? I would also like to understand what happens if 100% of the employees take VRS. Post that, what kind of employee cost run rate will we see?
Overall, the number of employees that are eligible for VRS is 479 out of roughly around 1,450 employees that we have. Only one-third of the employees are actually eligible for VRS. These are primarily the employees who are more than 50 years of age and joined prior to 2003. The actual impact will again depend on the number of people that actually opt for a VRS. I can give you a ballpark number. The average VRS payout per employee would be in the range of around INR 6,000,000 to INR 6,500,000. Depending on the number of employees that actually opt for it, I can communicate the actual impact. What was the second question, Prayesh? I didn't get that.
If 100% employees opt for the VRS, how much?
No, we have analyzed it. We are not required to replenish all employees. Our data suggests that if in case all 500 employees take the VRS, over a period of time, we will be requiring 70 to 75 people to supplement those requirements. Prayesh, the actual run rate, once we relieve the employees, then depending on the business requirement and how many cases actually we may require a replacement or the entire organization restructuring will happen. We will get the actual run rate maybe while we will amount the quarter three result.
Got that. That's very, very helpful. Second question is on the SIP market share. If I look at your SIP market share, which was there in September 2024, which was about 2.9%, and now it's about 2.7%. What are we doing to kind of change this and see and make further improvements here? Because I think that the cornerstone for this industry has been SIPs, and that is where it seems that we are losing some market share.
Yeah, I think if you look at our market share, it might have just gone down marginally. Otherwise, we have seen our month-on-month growth in our SIP numbers. If you look at the SIP count of us, it has also increased 11% on a year-on-year basis. There are about 600,000 new SIPs, which have been registered in this first half of the year, out of which 75% have come through the digital channel. Most of our shares across channels remain steady, and we are not seeing too much of a change there. The highest share of SIP flows that we are getting is still coming from the MFDs, which is about half, 50% of our SIP flows. This is followed by RIA, which is close to about 19%. The rest is coming through direct fintech and DND.
The two channels where we have seen significant increases are the RIA channel and the fintechs on a year-on-year basis, which is around 40% to 45% increase from last year. We can owe much of this growth to the trust that we are putting into augmenting our network in the last many quarters, and we will keep on making our efforts in this direction to improve our market share in the SIPs. Another factor which is important is, in respect of the smaller cities where we have been able to sustain our growth by deepening our presence through a combination of digital engagement, distribution partnerships, and financial literacy initiatives. This has also helped us to get a number of SIPs from the smaller centers.
As a core strategy, we are overly focused on our SIP. We are on the platform, all the platforms, as DSP, Axis Bank, and everywhere. We as a team, this is our core strategy to implement.
Got that, sir. Just on the other expense front, that has also seen a standard on basis. I've seen a very sharp jump both on a YOY as well as a sequential basis. What's driving that?
The other expenses or the employee cost?
Other expenses.
The other expenses, I think the INR 6 crore was on account of CSR expenses. As you are aware, CSR expenses are actually booked on a cash basis and not on an accrual basis. Maybe this quarter, the other expenses have increased. The next quarter, there might be a slight dip in the overall expenses. For the full year, we maintain a guidance of close to around 7% to 8% for the other expenses. There may be some volatility because the CSR expenses are actually accounted on a cash basis.
Got that. This is helpful. Thank you so much. Wish you all a very happy Diwali.
Thank you.
Thank you. You too.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Nuwama Wealth. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking my question and happy Diwali to everyone. Just again on the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, of the 460, 470 employees that the Voluntary Retirement Scheme is applicable to, how many have actually accepted it until now? If you can give some number of them, and in your internal estimates, what's the kind of acceptance rate broadly that you would be building in? That will also be helpful. My second question is more for Vetri. If you could highlight, you will be taking over as CEO. Congratulations for that and all the best on the new role. What will be your key focus areas and what next couple of years, let's say, what would be your sort of targets in your mind, both in terms of fund raise, performance, and expenses?
What can shareholders look forward to if you could outline how you're thinking about the strategy for UTI? Thanks.
Madhukar, so far as the VRS scheme is still on, this scheme will be closed on 31st of October 2025. Therefore, we are unable to give you any number at this particular point of time. Since it's a VRS scheme, we cannot predict how many people will take with a certain number. However, what we are witnessing, we are witnessing a very positive response from our people. Vetri, over to you.
Yeah. Madhukar, thanks for the good wishes. If you look at the asset management space, and obviously the mutual fund being a big component of that, in a sense, it's a very simple business. It's just all about the products and the way the funds perform. Equally, it's a people-driven business because it's the people who really make the difference across all aspects of the business. If you look at it in terms of what the strategic priorities are, India has talked about the growth that we've seen and the leadership transition that is currently underway. I think one benefit I have compared to when Imtaiyazur Rahman took charge in 2018 is that we have a strong set of leadership across the entire company and, in fact, for that matter, across the entire group.
I believe our senior-level teams are very well placed today as compared to where we were earlier. Having said that, workforce rejuvenation is a very key component of what we need to carry out. If we go back a few years in history and look at our sales team, the ratio of supervisory sales team leads to the actual hunters was adverse. That is something that we have been correcting over the last three years. I think with this Voluntary Retirement Scheme, it will see a further change in terms of the number of managers who make up the sales system, who are supervising the sales team, and the number of actual salespeople who are going out there in the market.
That workforce rejuvenation in terms of a younger cohort, making sure that the ratio of supervisory to hunters is more appropriately placed, making sure that this younger team is now properly skilled and trained to be able to engage with the marketplace. To my mind, that is really one critical part of the engagement part of our business with all our partners and distributors. The second part is the brand visibility and the brand connect. The brand has a very strong recollect. It has legacy. At the same time, we are aware that there is a younger cohort of customers to whom the brand does not resonate as strongly.
We would certainly, in the years ahead, once again utilize some of the flexibility that would show up for us by investing in the brand to make sure that we are increasing the visibility and the connection to the younger cohorts who may not fully be aware of the legacy of the brand. The brand would really be the second part of what is important. Third thing, if you look at all the industry data, we are certainly going through a disruption in the sense not visible in the AUM, but visible in the number of customer accounts, which are now digitally originated. For us, that is partly allied with the previous point, which is to say that we need to have best-in-class digital assets.
We need to have best-in-class digital systems, which allow us to talk to the customers, engage with the customers, cross-sell, upsell, and also sort of give them a sense of being digitally native because the new competitors who are entering this business are increasingly digitally native. Digital and brand at some portion of these are aligned. At some portion, it is a separate platform that we'll anyway have to build. As far as fund management is concerned, I think we've got the processes well in place. We've got very strong teams. There will always be some cyclicality in terms of fund performance. What we have tried to do over there is make sure that we have a go-to-market strategy, which makes sure that we are always carrying a portfolio of products to the market, which are positioned both on performance and on opportunity.
This requires a little bit of training of the sales team to be able to carry this message of products that carry performance and simultaneously showcase the products where the opportunity lies for the future. I think with a more agile workforce, with the appropriate upskilling and training, we will be able to get them to carry this message out there in the market. I would say all of these are things that we would need to do. I think a very key metric for us, given that we are a scale player, we are present across the country, there is a discrepancy between our market share in SIP and the market share that we have on stock AUM. To my mind, one of the critical things that we will be focusing on is continuously raising the SIP market share.
To my mind, the only way to get back to where we are on stock AUM is to keep increasing the share of SIP flows. I know there was a question on this earlier, and I'll put in a slightly tactical point that maybe we'll have to look through the data. Remember that the hottest selling category in mutual funds, particularly on the equity side in the last two years or maybe in three years, has actually been sectoral thematic. This has been an area in which we have been both conservative and cautious. This may have cost us both in terms of gross sales as well as impacted our share of the SIP book. We are very focused that in the core categories, we want to keep increasing our share of the SIP book.
I think it is in the core diversified products that there will be a long-term opportunity to make sure that we get a sustainable share of the SIP pipeline. I think on the cost side, post-November, we will get a better opportunity to articulate where our cost structure will settle down. Certainly, we will look to reinvest some of that in brand visibility. Once we are able to raise our equity SIP book, it should automatically start to show up in the yields as well. It is a pretty simple business. If you're able to keep your costs under control and raise the yields, the jaws sort of start to open up. That is what we will have to target. It is a journey. It's not something that we can do overnight. I think all of these are levers that we will have to use.
Simultaneously, leveraging the onsite fund management talent we have into the offshore business gives us the ability to tap into a new set of investors. UTI Alternatives, which is still a very small unit for us, there is scope to grow that. That will be a much higher yielding unit eventually, though the size of AUM may be much smaller. That is another way to diversify the asset management company and the listed company's businesses. In a nutshell, many things. These are all the touchpoints that we'll have to go. Over time, we'll come back to you with a dashboard. You have an understanding of each of the elements that I described and the progress that we hope to make.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for the response. You know, look forward to your innings and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Svarnap Mukherjee from BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for the opportunity. I wish you congrats on your new role and a happy Diwali to everyone. I had three questions. First of all, I think about this quarter, in the employee cost, also if we adjust for the INR 25 crore one-off that has come through, there is still, I think, a INR 10 crore increase in standalone P&L in employee cost and around INR 4 or 5 crore in the consolidated P&L. If you could explain what that is due to, that is the first question. Second, you were talking about the three-year performance and as we gradually scale up there. I just wanted to know, in your mind or how have you seen in the past in the industry that as the performance goes into the higher quartiles, what is the lead time before flows start to come in?
How should we think about it on that? Thirdly, over the last two or three years, we had kind of articulated to investors to maintain our cost base. I think we did a great job at that. The cost base was not going up, only, I think, low single digits. Now, given our plans about investments in the brand and in the distribution channel, as you have articulated, should we expect any of that in the cost heads to increase going forward? If you could give some color on the page. These are my three questions. One bookkeeping question, if you could give us the yields by asset classes for the quarter. Yes, those will be all.
Okay. Vinay?
Yes.
I'll answer on the cost and the yield part. On the employee cost, apart from the family pension liability of INR 25 crore, roughly around INR 6.5 crore is the actuarial impact on account of salary revision that has happened in this particular quarter. Again, we see it as just a one quarter event, and this will normalize over the balance period. On the yield part, the equity and hybrid yield is close to around 75 to 75 basis points. ETF and index fund has seen a marginal improvement to around 8 basis points from the earlier 6 basis points that were there in the previous half year. Cash and liquid fund is close to around 9 basis points, and fixed income is around 19 to 20 basis points.
There is some marginal reduction on the fixed income yield because I think most of the products that are being sold on the fixed income side are on the shorter duration and some marginal reduction in the yield on the fixed income side. Do you want to answer the question with respect to the cost going forward?
Yes. Just a follow-up. On the employee cost side, if I may just clarify, sir, you said INR 6 crore because of actual valuation. If I remove the INR 25 crore number, I think INR 100 crore for last quarter in the standalone P&L went to around INR 110 odd crore except the INR 25 crore number. INR 6 crore out of that.
No, no. INR 25 crore is on account of family pension, and INR 6.5 crore is on account of actuarial valuation plus other retirement benefits, which includes your gratuity, leave encashment, and stuff like that.
Every year, post the salary increase, we need to calculate the various superannuation benefits. Based on that, the INR 6 crore is the liability, one-time liability has come INR 6 crore. If we normalize 25 plus 6, then the cost is in line with 2.5%, 3%. That is as per the guidance which we have given. You have asked about the question of maintenance of the cost post what Vetri suggested to you that once he takes over, he will invest some dollars in the brand, brand regeneration, etc. I don't feel we are in the position at this particular point of time to suggest any or give any guidance on this number. However, if you see the last five years, our CFO team and the entire management team, they have been extraordinarily careful about the cost.
We say we cut a lot of cost, we save a lot of cost, we improve efficiency, and whatever the money we save out of that, we use for the other line of the business. This has been the trend. For example, we have opened 75 branches, but we have not increased the cost because we reduced a lot of branches, we cut a lot of cost, we optimized a lot of cost, and we have brought in a lot of efficiency using our technology. That has helped. Vetri has suggested that he will go for the brand and many other things. At the very same time, he's extraordinarily careful, and he's working on that to save a lot of costs in the other areas.
At this particular point of time, I don't feel Vetri will be in a position to give any guidance, or I'm in a position to give any guidance. However, when we meet again or when they meet you again in the third quarter or fourth quarter end, we will be in a better position to give you the guidance on the next plan. For the yield discussion, Vinay, you have already replied about the yield?
Yes, sir.
Yes. Mr. Mukherjee, hope it answered the question.
Sir, I had also.
One question.
Yeah, the flows.
Yes, Mr. Mukherjee, come again.
Yeah, I had also asked regarding the flows that, you know, in your experience, once we scale up on the three-year performance as you had highlighted, normally what I mean, it might play out differently, but normally what have you seen as the lead time for the catch-up on flows to happen?
If you see in the past, and even if you refer to our data of 2021, 2022, you'll see that typically it is somewhere in the second year after you start to get good performance in some of your schemes where the flow numbers start to pick up quite significantly. You'll see that very much in our flow data in 2021, 2022, which were strong years for us, both in terms of our share of growth as well as our share of net flows of equity flows for the industry. I would say two to three is the sweet spot. We see this even at a scheme level.
If I look at current year to date, for the first time, one of our other schemes has started to outsell in terms of gross sales our largest single active equity scheme, and that's a function of the fact that its three-year performance is not really strong. Those are the cycles that you see at a product level. The main point that I would like to make is that we as a firm recognize this cyclicality of two-year and three-year. That is why I said we need to take the products appropriately to the market, position some on the back of performance, and position others on the back of opportunity.
That's very helpful. If I may squeeze in a couple of more quick questions. Sir, first of all, on the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, once you get clarity in terms of how much your cost will be, just wanted to know how it would be provisioned. Will it be provisioned over one quarter or over multiple periods? Just some clarity on that. Secondly, sir, this new product, SIP, that I think some of your peers are launching. Just wanted to know your thoughts or any strategy around that.
Vinay on accounting and Vetri on the SIP.
The entire VRS cost will be booked in the P&L in the third quarter itself.
As per the accounting requirement.
As per accounting standard, there is some impact as far as the taxation is concerned that these expenses need to be amortized over a period of five years as per the Income Tax Act. You might see a deferred tax has been created. As far as the accounting of this cost is concerned, the entire cost will be charged in Q3 financials. On the SIP, I think we have all.
Vetri?
Sure. On the SIP itself, see, it's an interesting product category because it opens up space to do something which is slightly different from the traditional mutual fund product. At the same time, it has the benefits of the same set of regulations that asset management companies would anyway use across their products. The regulator also has great comfort with this. There are two, you know, sort of challenges we need to be cognizant of. One is that for this product to be distributed, both my own sales team as well as the distribution partners need to get certified at a new level as compared to the certification required to sell a normal mutual fund product.
When we look at the data at this point of time, it's very clear to us that at this point of time, the distribution system's ability to distribute this product is limited by the fact that there are not enough people who have the certification. Having said that, we are getting our people trained so that we have enough people in-house. We are going region by region. We will have enough in-house people who are then certified appropriately to position this. We have also finalized our brand because by law, we require a separate brand for this product. That is also in the final stages of, you know, being rolled out.
The actual product launch, again, we are looking at what is the appetite that the market might have because the launch product is a product which still at this point of time is not very well understood in the marketplace. Therefore, we need to see which of these products might actually be most suitable. All the building blocks that need to be done, we are doing one by one, which is the brand, which is the platform, and finally, the training of our own sales team. Honestly, it makes sense to launch it when the distribution architecture is prepared. The number of people in the distribution architecture who can sell this scheme is currently limited.
Understood, sir. That's very helpful. I appreciate your detailed responses. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Meghna Luthra from Incred Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for giving me an opportunity. I had two questions. One, sorry to harp on again on the employee cost. After we are done with the VRS, what could be a normalized number of employee costs that we can expect every quarter? The second question is a little qualitative. We are seeing a fast-pacing growth in the digital onboarding from SIPs and even lump sums. How do we compete in this space, and how does any AMC compete? There's no payout, right, to the digital onboarding of customers. Is there a dynamic where we can compete and come ahead? These are my two questions.
As I said, the run rate will be able to communicate for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme settlement is over, depending on our business requirement if we need to recruit people to fill up some of the vacancies that may arise. Vetri rightly pointed out that we are realigning our ratios of managerial to the hunter on the staff. The entire reorganization will be carried out sometime in Q3. Maybe when we announce the Q3 financial result, the run rate for the employee cost will be communicated. Meghna, we are progressing digital transformation with the focus on expanding our investor access and providing them platform efficiencies. If you look at as of September 2025, 89% of our total gross sales in the quarter came from the digital platforms. In the last four quarters, an average of around 92% of the gross sales are coming through the digital channels.
You can see that digital channels are taking shape through the existing distributors as well as from the fintech platforms. Our recent collaboration with Salesforce, which focuses on customized communication, has helped us to create a top-of-mind recall with many of our investors. Similarly, we have been focusing on things like internet IP activation, digital KYC, and distributors onboarding through mobile and our web application. The team has done a great job to ensure that all the application as well as the website is top of line. Another area where we are putting a lot of focus is the fintech partnership. We are looking at API integration to support their digital push also by streamlining the processes and improving the customer experience.
All of these initiatives show that, as Vetri also pointed out, the digital architecture as well as the framework will help the growth of the mutual fund industry and UTI. Meghna, just to add to what Sandeep said, just keep in mind that they are also trying to rejig their own business models because no doubt they've made a significant impact in terms of the number of clients that they bring, the new SIP signups that they bring. I think they are also now trying to figure out where in this entire mix they will be able to get profitability from the clients that they are onboarding.
What we are seeing at this point of time is a significant number of these digital platforms starting to rethink what their approach to business should be in terms of how they want to position themselves, whether it will be purely direct or whether they also wish to have clients to whom they will offer incidental advice. I think it's still evolving. We are very clear, as Sandeep said, that we need to have best-in-class digital assets and digital visibility because otherwise, you will not be part of the consideration set.
Okay.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Abhijit Sakary from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, everyone. A question again on the VRS-related point. I just wanted to know what would be the contribution of these, you know, 470-odd employees in our current staff cost on a full-year basis? That would be the first question.
Cost of what? What is your question? Can you repeat your question, please, Abhijit?
Yes, sir. Sir, like you mentioned, there are these, you know, about 470-odd employees, right, who are eligible for this VRS scheme. Now, what I wanted to know is that on a full-year basis of whatever your staff cost is, I'm just checking the number. Last full year, it was about INR 460-odd crores. What would be attributable to these 470-odd employees? That was the question.
I think the average payout of these 470 employees would be in the range of around INR 2.8 to 3.0 million.
Okay. Got it, sir. Sir, secondly, just again reconfirming this point, when you make the provision in the third quarter, this will be routed through the P&L itself, right?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
In that context, how do we think about the dividend payout for the full year?
That is too early to comment. Let's see now how the year goes and how much people are applying for it and are accepting the VRS. Based on that, we will give you the guidance in the third quarter at the end of the third quarter.
Got it. That's all, sir. Thank you so much, and happy Diwali to everyone.
As you know, we have got a very strong balance sheet. The accounting requirement is it has to be charged in the same year, same financial year. We have a very, very strong balance sheet.
Got it, sir. Sorry, I just forgot the question for Vinay, sir. How do we think about the full-year tax rate for this year?
The full-year tax rate actually will be slightly higher in the range of around 26% to 27% because, as I stated earlier, this Voluntary Retirement Scheme cost will be amortized over a period of five years. The Indian Income Tax Act doesn't allow it to be charged in the full year. While there will be an expense, the tax rate will be slightly on a higher side.
Got it, sir.
We'll communicate the exact number when we announce our quarter three financial results.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yep.
Our next question comes from the line of Devish Punjabi from Banyan Tree Advisors. Please go ahead.
Will it be the last question? Is anyone else in the line? Okay, go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. I had two questions. One was on the pension management business. You mentioned that there are four schemes being launched, and there are also a bunch of regulatory changes being done by PFRDA. Can you just talk about what these schemes would look like, what would be the realization and the size of the opportunity? The second question is on the VRS. Out of these 479, if you can just maybe touch upon the function-wise split of the employees. Across sales and the other functions, how is it going to be spread out?
Sandeep, on pension, do you want to highlight?
Yeah. The fourth scheme that we are planning to launch is the first scheme, NPS Trust Account UTI PF Wealth Builder NPS Equity Scheme. This will be based on equity. There are two schemes in this. There is a Tier 1 scheme and there is a Tier 2 scheme. The other scheme, which is on the dynamic hybrid side, is the UTI PF Dynamic Asset Allocator NPS Scheme Tier 1. Similarly, there is a Tier 2 scheme. As for the opportunity for this fund, I think it is still in the planning stage, and by the time we launch it, the market conditions will determine the kind of inflows that we'll see in this fund.
To add to what Sandeep said, the bigger opportunity is that we need to grow the market for the private NPS product. All that has happened with this set of regulations is that we have been given a lot more flexibility in product design. You are no longer carrying a very tightly regimented product to the customer. You have a plate which has got some more attractive opportunities or at least perceived benefits that people can see in those products. I think the bigger challenge still remains to grow the market in terms of getting people to sign up for the private sector pension.
Yeah. On the segmentation of the classification of employees, we have two categories of employees: managerial staff and non-managerial staff. Out of 476, 351 are associated with the sales and sales-related functions. Hope it answers both of your questions.
Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Imtaiyazur Rahman for closing comments.
Thank you very much to all of you for your active participation. Once again, on my personal behalf and behalf of my team here and the entire UTI, we wish all of you a very happy and prosperous Diwali and the New Year. Thank you and have a nice weekend.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the call. In case of any queries, feel free to connect with the UTI Asset Management Company Investor Relations team. You may now disconnect your lines.