Thank you, [Sonali?] .

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this earnings call. Today with us we have Mr.

Tribhuwan Adhikari, MD and CEO, and Mr. Lokesh Mundhra, CFO, to discuss the results.

I would request Mr. Adhikari to share his initial remarks on the results, post which we'll open the floor for Q&A.

Over to you, sir.

Yeah. Thank you, Praveen.

Good morning and welcome to all of you to the post-earnings conference call of LIC Housing Finance Limited. As you are aware, LICHFL declared its Q4 Financial Year '26 results yesterday.

Before I start the highlights of the Q4 results, I would like to outline a few developments in the economy of the last quarter. Over the past few months, the global economy has been navigating heightened geopolitical uncertainty arising from the evolving situation in the Middle East.

The conflict has resulted in volatility across global financial and commodity markets, particularly in crude oil prices. Concerns round supply distributions and logistic bottlenecks have led to intermittent spikes in crude prices, which have implications for inflationary expectations, currency movements, and global interest rate outlooks.

The increase in oil prices has exerted pressure on the Indian rupee and could potentially impact imported inflation if the situation persists for an extended period. However, India's macroeconomic fundamentals continue to remain relatively resilient, supported by healthy GDP growth, stable financial sector conditions, adequate foreign exchange reserves, and continued government focus on infrastructure and capital expenditure.

Against this backdrop, the RBI maintained a wait-and-watch stance in the first MPC for FY '27 and flagged further escalation of the conflict, elevated energy prices, weather-related events, including the emergence of El Niño conditions, slowdown in exports, and heightened volatility in the global financial markets as the downside risks to domestic growth. While liquidity conditions have remained broadly adequate, the RBI continues to closely monitor inflationary trends, global commodity prices, and external sector developments while balancing the growth-inflation dynamics.

Coming to the housing finance industry, despite external uncertainties, domestic mortgage demand has remained reasonably resilient. Structural drivers such as urbanization, favorable demographics, rising income levels, increased aspiration for homeownership, and continued policy support for housing continues to provide long-term growth visibility to the sector.

With this, we present the financial highlights of the company for the quarter as follows. Total revenue from operations: ₹7,194 crores as against ₹7,281 crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Outstanding loan portfolio stood at ₹3,20,707 crores as on 31st March 2026 as against ₹3,07,732 crores as on 31st March 2025, reflecting a growth of 4%. The individual home loan portfolio stood at ₹2,70,893 crores as on 31st March 2026 as against ₹2,61,562 crores as on 31st March 2025, up by 4% and comprising 84% of the total portfolio.

Total disbursements for the quarter were ₹21,019 crores as against ₹19,156 crores for Q4 FY '25, up by 10%. Out of that disbursements in the individual housing loans were ₹16,672 crores for Q4 of FY '26 as against ₹15,383 crore for Q4 FY '25, up by 8%, and non-housing individual loan segment were at ₹3,348 crores as against ₹2,676 crores, up by 25%, whereas project loans were at ₹847 crores compared to ₹875 crores in Q4 Financial Year '25.

On the net interest income front, net interest income was ₹2,222 crores for the quarter as against ₹2,102 crores for Q3 of FY '26 and ₹2,165 crores for Q4 of FY '25, showing a sequential growth of 6% Q-on-Q and 3% on Y-o-Y basis. Net interest margin for the quarter stood at 2.80% as against 2.69% for Q3 of FY '26 and 2.85% for Q4 of FY '25.

For the full year, it stood at 2.68% as against 2.73%, which was well within the guidance given at the beginning of the year. PBT, profit before tax, for the quarter stood at ₹1,934.24 crores as against ₹1,769.58 crores, a growth of 9.31%.

Profit after tax for the quarter stood at ₹1,497.41 crores as against ₹1,367.96 crores for the same period previous year, up by 9.46%. PAT for FY '25-26 stood at ₹5,595.15 crores as against ₹5,429.02 crores for FY '24-25, showing a growth of 3%.

Dividend was declared by the board at 500%, that is ₹10 per share. In terms of asset quality, the Stage 3 exposure at default stood at 2.16% as against 2.47% as on 31-3-25 and 2.45% as on 31-12-25, reflecting a sequential as well as year-on-year improvement in the same.

Total provisions as on 31st March 2026 is ₹4,569 crores, with Stage 3 provisioning cover at 50.08%. Credit cost for Q4 of FY '26 is 2 basis points, and the full year it is 18 basis points.

The company also conducted sale of a stressed asset through ARC for a cash consideration of ₹70 crores during Q4 of Financial Year '26. On the funding side, the cumulative cost of funds stood at 7.27% as on 31st March 2026 as against 7.73% as on 31st March 2025, showing a decline of 46 basis points on year-on-year basis.

Incremental cost of funds also reduced significantly from 7.73% in Financial Year '25 to 6.94% in Financial Year '26, a decline of 79 basis points. Q4 of FY '26, it stood at 6.86% as compared to 7.66% for Q4 FY '25.

During March '26, the interest rates were elevated due to the war in West Asia, which resulted in a shoot-up of crude oil prices and the fall of the INR at record low levels. However, we managed to reduce our interest expenses by more than ₹150 crores as compared to Q3 of FY '26.

We also got reprice some of our outstanding bank borrowings during the last financial year. In the last financial year '25-26, we raised fresh loan from banks and financial institutions amounting to more than ₹45,000 crores and raised more than ₹10,000 crores from NHB at very competitive rates.

Out of the total incremental borrowings of Financial Year '25-26, around 82% were at floating rates. Out of the total outstanding borrowings, share of the floating rate borrowings today stands at 52% as on 31-3-26 as compared to 45% as on 31-3-25.

On the technology initiative, the company has launched a project in February '26, which we call the Straight Through Process. This is basically a machine-enabled credit appraisal process enabling automated underwriting of loans.

This initiative is expected to significantly reduce manual intervention in the sanction process and enhance overall customer experience through much reduced turnaround times. With this brief introduction, I would like to invite you for your queries.

Thank you.

Hello, sir. Sir, can you talk about your growth outlook in terms of what disbursement growth and individual home loans you expect next year?

Even your margin outlook, your margins did expand in 4Q, but from here on? Then your Stage 3 ECL has gone down, if you could comment on what level you would like to keep it at?

Okay. Thank you, Mahrukh, for your question.

Coming to the first thing regarding the growth estimates. Honestly, Mahrukh, right at the moment, we are sitting in a very volatile geopolitical situation.

Right? West Asia crisis going on, nothing seems to be moving as such.

Of course, a lot of initiatives, ceasefire and all that have been taken. On top of that, India itself is being impacted, the energy crisis as we may call it, the inflationary pressure on all the other things.

Honestly, growth would depend on the geopolitical situation and the economic situation. Yes, growth in last year has been muted.

4.4% was the growth for the full financial year, largely contributed by intense pressure in the housing finance industry. As you are aware, LIC Housing Finance, basically we are into the individual home loan segment, where we are competing with banks.

With the repo rate cut of 100 basis points by RBI, the banks' repo rate was immediately reset because their rates are linked to the repo. We had to frantically take a call on reducing our rates also.

Of course, there was a time lag, a delay in us reducing rates, the impact was felt in the business inflow into the company. It was a very competitive year last year, and the competition did impact the, I would say, the growth which we received.

4.4% as against a double-digit growth which we were alluding to in the beginning of the year. Yes, that is the way it is going to be.

In the beginning of last year, I clearly said that given a choice between protecting margins and going for growth, I would prefer to protect my margins than really go helter-skelter for growth. We have been able to protect our margins.

Going forward, honestly speaking, yes, right at the moment difficult to hazard a guess what the situation is going to play out throughout the year. Q1, definitely we are targeting a 15% growth for Q1.

Going forward, definitely, if the conditions are what they are, a 10% to 12% growth is what I am expecting this year, and I'm pretty sure we'll get there this year. On the margins front, 2.80% was the NIM for the quarter, 2.68% was the NIM for the entire financial year, well within the guidance of 2.6% to 2.8% which we had given in the beginning of the year.

February and March were reasonable months. Yes, January and February were good months for us where we were able to borrow at very competitive rates of almost 6.8%.

Thereafter, February and March, especially March, with the West Asia crisis evolving and growing, there was a pressure on the borrowing costs. The costs are still, I feel, elevated.

I think in Q1, we will be able to maintain a margin of 2.6% to 2.7%. For the year, difficult to predict right now, but assuming that things remain normal, I would say for the year, a sort of NIM of 2.5% to 2.7% is what we are aiming to achieve.

On the ECL front, yes, on the asset quality front, asset quality has been improving quarter-on-quarter. Our GNPA ratio has come down from 2.47% at the end of last year to 2.15% at the end of FY '25-26, and NNPA is down from 1.22% to 1.08%.

The provisioning requirements are reducing. As regards settlement, no major big settlement was witnessed except for this one settlement of ₹70 crores, which we could do during the month of March.

The big-ticket settlements are still in various stages of negotiation. Expecting, yes, advance information, there is one big account which has been resolved, but as per the guidelines of RBI, we have to wait for one full year before the let us call it the resolution of the settlement can take effect in our books.

That settlement happened in the month of May of last year, this year in the month of May, current year, the effect of that settlement will be felt in our books. Asset quality is definitely going to improve much, much further in the coming financial year, better than what we witnessed last year.

Sir. I just have one question.

Sir, may I please ask if your successor has been identified?

Yes. My successor has been identified.

In fact, very unfortunate incident took place. The successor who was identified earlier suddenly passed away on the 9th of—

Yes, sir.

—May, 9th of May. Mr.

Sanjay Dayal, who was the appointed CEO and designated to take over from me, he suffered a sudden heart attack on the 9th of May and passed away. Now we have another successor in place, Mr.

Sandeep Kumar. He has joined us just yesterday, and he will be taking over from me on 31st of August 2026.

Sir. Thank you so much.

Thanks a lot.

Yeah. Thanks for taking the question.

Firstly, when we look at it in terms of the overall repayment and prepayment rate during the quarter, it's been slightly higher outside of the HL loans, particularly on the LAP side. If you can just highlight in terms of how the trends have been in BT-out, how has been the repayment rates in the home loan, and why the prepayment or run-off rates were quite high in Q4 despite I would believe there would have been some improvement on BT-out during the quarter as you indicated last quarter.

Yeah.

Kunal, yeah. Good morning.

If I talk about the prepayment, yeah, prepayment is a natural phenomenon in the housing finance industry. Right?

Along with every EMI, some amount of principal does come in, and then people having extra cash or extra money to spare, they do try to pair off their outstanding loans. If I talk about the last quarter, see, on an average in the company, the prepayment is about what, ₹2,000-odd crores every month, that right?

Yeah. Kunal, just I want to supplement.

For the last quarter, the net BT was around 1,250 only. Prepayment by way of lumpsum payment by the customer, that is normal phenomenon of the industry.

Important is what BT-out exactly we have faced. It's not in a alarming situation.

That was quite normal during this quarter.

This compares with Q3 1,150, if I have to compare it with Q3, how much was that net BT-out?

If I compare BT of Q3, in Q3, BT, 8,916 loans went out of our books, amounting to ₹2,157.29 crores. Right?

In Q4, this figure came down to 6,480 and ₹1,187.71 crores. Approximately near about a ₹1,000-crore reduction in BT-out in Q4.

It is not that BT-out has increased. In Q2 and Q3, the BT-out was significantly higher.

Q2, it was ₹2,838 crores. Q3, it was ₹2,157.

Q1 was ₹1,341, and Q4 was ₹1,187. BT is more or less settled at about what, approximately, if I round it up, about ₹1,200 crores in a quarter.

Kunal, for repricing of our this instructions we have issued somewhere in last week of October. After October, BT-out is checked to a great extent.

In the last Q4, it is not so much material.

Got it. When we are looking at, say, 10%, 12% disbursement growth for the full year, so, in fact, you are suggesting closer to almost, say, ₹73,000 to ₹75,000-odd crores of disbursements for next year.

Looking at the current run rate, in fact, still the loan growth would appear to be in a mid single digit or so. Maybe earlier you have been guiding for taking it towards 8% to 10%-odd percent, but is there any possibility, would there be any levers, are there any initiatives which you are taking in order to pull that up or we should see nearly a mid single digit growth continuing for a while given this geopolitical situation?

Kunal. If I talk about the book growth and the disbursement growth, yeah, disbursement growth was impacted in Q1, Q2, and Q3 of last year.

Right? If you look at Q4, our disbursement growth is 10%.

This was where we wanted to be for the full financial year, but somehow it happened in Q4 only. This has continued in the April of Q Q1 of this year.

In April, I have a disbursement growth of almost 20.87%. The the growth is picking up.

Yes, as regarding the levers, yes, we have looked at what we really need to do to really achieve this so-called elusive double-digit growth which we have been alluding to in the past 2, 3 years. Two, three things we have identified this year, which is going to be totally different from what we have been doing in the previous years.

Number one is all this while, 36, 37 years of our history, we have always been focused on sourcing housing loan ourselves, or rather the organic method of doing business. Right?

For the first time, since last quarter of last We spent the last last quarter of last year in formulating a co-lending and a DA policy, direct assignment policy, which is now ready. This year, we are going to go in for co-lending more so in the retail segment, and partially in the partially and cautiously in the project finance segment.

This is one initiative or one step which I think would help us grow our business as well as our book. Number one.

Number two is what we are look what we are looking at, traditionally, we have been sourcing business through our agents. Right?

90% of my business comes in through them. Apart from them, we have just two corporate agents.

One is our own subsidiary, LIC Financial Services Limited, which approximately does about 10% of the total business of the company, and the other is an individual entity or a company called SP Enterprises. This year this year, what we are looking at, there are a lot of business aggregators available in the market, people like Andromeda and others.

We are consciously going to engage with them and try to engage them to source business for us. That would probably give us some volume of business.

₹4,000, ₹5,000 crores is what I'm looking for in the first year. That is one.

Number three is we have been focused we have been trying to do affordable business, but it has not taken off in any in any big way. Yes, we were cautious about it.

Consciously, we were going slow because we were aware of the high risk in this segment. The other thing was that since in the last 36, 37 years, we have never done affordable, true meaning of affordable.

We've mostly been comfortable doing IHL, individual home loans to the salaried and the self-employed class. This year, a decision has been taken that we need to set up a separate affordable vertical, something like what PNB has done, the Roshni vertical of PNB.

We'll be setting up a similar vertical. The process will start very shortly.

It will be completely new, and totally people will be onboarded from outside because I believe people in the in our company, we are not attuned for that. We'll be hiring people from outside.

It will be a complete separate vertical wherein the entire sourcing, the entire credit appraisal, the entire recovery, the entire collection machinery will be handled by people who are attuned with, who are experienced in doing affordable business. That is another.

The fourth is we are increasing our feet on the street or resources in the marketing side. We have achieved we have received an approval of onboarding about 200 people for the marketing vertical.

The process will be completed by the end of Q1. These 200 people are about what, 6%, 7% of my the total employees.

I have a total employee strength of 2,500, this 200 will be about 7%, 8% of the total employee strength. This also will add to my feet on the street and naturally my business push which I intend to have.

These four, five things which I talked about should give me at least a double-digit growth in the current financial year.

This is on disbursements?

This is on disbursement. Yes.

On the book growth side, yes, one area we are looking at or one area we had not been very focused on was on the BT-out. Right?

People moving out. Last year, BT-out for the company as a whole was about what, 12,200 ₹12,778 crores.

That's approximately a rundown of almost ₹1,000 crores per month. This is one area which we need to focus.

We have set up a separate, I would say, department which we are calling Business Retention Department this year. People have been put in place, and they will be completely focused on the BT-out.

Any case going out will have to go through for the people in this department. We will try whatever is possible on our part, including compromising on the rates we offer to hold back business or retain the business which we have, because retaining business is always profitable because people going out are not only a drain on the income of the company, but also sourcing new people is slightly more costlier proposition as compared to retaining existing customers.

Kunal, net business transferred around ₹7,000 crore only. Looking to the size of the company, portfolio is more than ₹3,20,000 crore, net BT-out of 7,000 around 7,000 is very normal, I think, looking to the industry practices.

Got it. Got it.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thanks a lot and patiently answering all the questions. Thank you.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Just wanted to check, the 10% to 12% guidance that you gave is on a loan growth, right?

Yeah, 10% to 12% is on the book.

On the book. Okay.

Right?

Yeah. About ₹73,000 crores disbursement is what we are targeting in retail.

₹4,500 crores disbursement is what we are targeting. That is the budgeted disbursement which the board has given us.

₹73,000 crores in ₹4,500 crores in construction finance or the wholesale book. Total taken together is about what, 70 near about ₹78,000 crores.

That is what the budget of the company is this year. If we get that, that will give us a near about a 15% business growth, and that should definitely translate with all the steps we are taking, including retention of portfolio department which we have opened.

We expect that the BT-out, ₹1,000 crores per month, should come down significantly. That should give me a loan book growth of double digits, 10% to 12% what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

Since we are out of the rate cut cycle, you expect the BT-out to come down and hence the guidance of 10%, 12%, is it fair to say? Right?

No. Can you come again, Sanket?

No, since we are now at the fag end or out of the rate cut cycle wherein usually during the rate cut cycle we face a lot of BT-outs, and now you expect that to come down, the pressure of BT-outs, is that the right assumption for next year?

At the moment, I think the rates are more or less fixed. I'm pretty sure there is not going to be any more rate cut in the prevailing circumstances.

I don't think RBI has any leeway to that. On the contrary, there is a possibility if the situation turns from bad to worse and this West Asia crisis prolongs for another 2 to 3 months, I see there could be a possibility of a rate hike.

Right? Increase in repo.

Again, see, the problem with us now, we are competing with banks. My IHL portfolio is 82%.

We have brought it down from 85% to 82% at the end of this year. We are trying diversification into the LAP and LRD segment.

Yes, we are still 82% IHL. IHL also, it is a prime segment, basically CIBIL score 750 and above.

That is exactly the, I would say, the domain, the territory of banks. Competing with them on the rate front is proving to be very, very difficult on our part.

Banks have an inherent advantage of cost of funds. Their cost of funds are slightly lower.

Slightly thing is that we borrow from banks. Right?

Basically, we are competing with our lenders, which is a difficult proposition. Hopefully, yes.

Hopefully, I think the rates are settled. Going forward, let us see what the RBI does, and we will have to match.

See, the problem is banks are totally repo rate-linked. Right?

There's an advantage for us in increasing rate cycle. The moment repo rate goes up, bank rates will immediately go up.

We do have some opportunity, probably 1 month, 1 month and a half timeframe where we can sit back and probably not immediately hike the rates, and probably going for a rate hike at a slightly later stage, which can give us this 1-month, 1-and-a-half-month advantage over the banks. Let us see how it plays out, and we'll be waiting for an opportunity and try to cash in on that.

Sanket, I want to add one more thing. The BT-out for the month of April is negligible.

BT-out was 1,100 something in the retail segment and the BT-in was 1,011. Net BT-out is hardly ₹100 crores.

Looking to the size of this company, ₹100 crores net BT-out is insignificant for the company.

This for April, you're

saying? Sanket, yeah.

What? Voice is not very clear.

Yeah.

No,

I was saying relatively you are right that banks will always be more competitive on cost of funds. Within our peers or the NBFC set of companies, since we have a higher share of say capital market borrowings, our cost of fund inch-up will be relatively slower, right, in a rising interest rate scenario?

Yes. Our cost of funds is definitely much, much less than that of NBFCs.

We are AAA-rated, which is the highest rating you can get in the industry. Right?

Our borrowing cost for the year was 7.27% cumulative and 6.94% incremental. This is the overall rate at which we borrowed in the last financial year.

We expect, yes, as far as the thing is concerned, we will definitely be getting lower rates as compared to NBFCs and other HFCs. We'll try to take it at an advantage.

Again, the problem as I said, we are competing with banks. Even incremental borrowing cost of 6.94% as compared to the borrowing cost of a bank, including CASA, which probably would be 5.5%, 5%, and it is still on the higher side.

We have a little bit of more tightrope walking to do as compared to banks. Yes, we have to be competitive, as I said, because of the line of business, the segment in which we operate, IHL.

We have to be competitive, we have to compete with banks, and we'll do that.

Sanket, this year, our maximum borrowing is from banks and at floating rates only. Almost 82% we have borrowed at floating rates, especially from banks.

There is a substantial reduction in rate of interest. On incremental basis, banks' borrowing was at 7.85%.

This year is 6.90% only. Lot of cost benefit we got in the current year.

Correct. Correct.

No, what I was alluding to is that since we have a lot of NCDs, NCDs typically have a 3-year, 5-year maturity. In that context also, our rate, even if the rate increases, our rate increase will be relatively slower or fathered.

The last question I wanted to have is that if you can tell us something about April disbursements in terms of how it is versus last April, any sense if you can give?

No, disbursements in terms of what, Sanket?

April disbursements in the month of April, how they have fared with last year, like for quarter, you were saying 15%, but April to April, the disbursement growth would be what?

I told you, April to April, my disbursement growth is 20.87%.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Okay. Sure, sir.

Those were my questions, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Operator, am I audible?

Please

Yeah. Is this better now?

Please proceed. Better.

Better.

Yeah. Good afternoon, sir.

Thanks for taking my question. Sir, two things.

One is during your opening remarks, you have shared that domestic mortgage demand has remained reasonably resilient, and then you also shared that almost 20%, 21% kind of a growth in disbursements that we've seen in April this year. Just trying to understand, out of a few real estate companies, developers who've reported, we have started seeing some acknowledgement that footfalls have moderated a little bit, conversions are now taking longer, customers are taking longer to make a purchase decision.

Just trying to understand, have you started seeing any of that in April and May, because your growth in April tells a very different story. Just trying to understand, what is your view on this?

Abhijit, yes. Last quarter also we grew by 20% 10%, which was significantly higher than the growth in Q1, Q2, Q3.

Then carrying it forward in April, we have shown a growth of almost 21%. Right now, the impact of either the West Asia crisis or the, I would say, slightly reduced outlook for the economy has not yet played out in us.

I think typically the reason is because of the segment we'd operate in. Right?

We are mostly into IHL, salaried class mostly. Number two, basically our ticket size is on about ₹32 lakhs of rupees per loan.

Basically, we are operating in the middle class segment. Right now, in this segment, not seeing too much of an impact.

If this crisis continues, the energy crisis continues, inflation goes up, definitely there will be an impact. The other part of it is which has me worried also to some extent is the impact of AI.

Right? In India, we've been hearing a lot about AI and especially in the Western world.

Right now, the impact, yes, there have been layoffs in India, but not to that extent. Going forward, we'll have to be very, very cautious and, I would say, on our feet and toes in assessing the impact on AI because some of the large centers where LICHFL does business, are basically centers which revolve around the IT industry, centers like Bangalore, centers like Chennai, centers like Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune.

These are centers where a big chunk of my business comes in from, and these are centers which are totally, I would say, revolved round or evolved around the IT industry. If the impact of AI does impact these centers, it is definitely going to impact my business also.

That is the worry for me. Yes, West Asia crisis is a worry.

Because basically, if you look at the housing thing, especially the segment I deal in, the middle class segment, it is all sentiment-based. Right?

If I go to buy a house, being a middle class man, I would first need to be very sure about my future earnings, my capacity to repay. If there is any doubt, any hesitancy, I would defer the decision to purchase a house or take a loan, etc., etc.

That could play out, that could be maybe what is playing out when the developers are saying that we are witnessing slightly lesser footfalls or lesser interest. The other part of it is most of the developers, at least the big developers, if you see, they are into the semi-semi-luxury and the luxury segment of the market.

This is an area where we don't operate in. There also the sentiment plays a big hand.

If a person or a businessman or anybody with money sees that future income is protected, he is definitely going to go for a ₹3-crore, ₹5-crore, ₹10-crore, even a ₹100-crore home loan. That could probably be the reasons.

Right now, touch wood, we have not felt the impact as such. Going forward, keeping our fingers crossed, hopefully nothing happens.

Got it, sir. That's useful.

Sir, the other question I had is, I am hoping you've not made any PLR changes in this quarter, which is yet to reflect in the reported yields, right?

No, no. We have not made any PLR changes as yet.

Yes, considering our cost of borrowing, which has increased in the months of March and April also, probably in the month of June, we will have to take a call on what we need to do. Definitely, at these levels of borrowing costs, will be difficult to maintain the PLR at the rate at which we're maintaining.

Got it. Sir, just on that, from what I understand, mostly in the HFC space, we are price-takers in the mortgage segment from banks.

Unless there is a repo rate increase, do you think a PLR increase can be pushed through to customers?

If you are analyzing the banks, at least the quarterly results of banks, NIMs of all banks are under pressure. Right?

Liquidity situation tightening, although right now I have said that it is more or less adequate, but I think in the coming times, unless RBI intervenes in a big way, the liquidity situation is going to be tighter. Again, I think banks also need to take a call as what they need to do with their NIMs, and similarly if they increase, then being in a competitive segment, yes, as I said, we have a leeway of probably a month, a month and a half.

Within a month, a month and a half, we'll also have to increase if you want to protect our margins.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Abhijit, one thing. Our cumulative cost as on 31st March, it was 7.27%.

As of now, there is not an increase in that cumulative cost. Otherwise, there is a dip of at least 2 bps in that cumulative cost of borrowing.

As of now, I don't think there is any need of increasing PLR or any rates. Let's see first quarter, then definitely we'll review it, and then accordingly take a call.

Got it, sir. Got it.

Then the last question that I had is, have you taken any technical write-offs or—

Yeah. Hi, sir.

My first question is on the NIM, right? When we look at the spreads, actually it fell sequentially, and largely to continuous yield contraction.

Just wanted to understand how do you see asset yields moving going ahead? Also considering we want to restrict BT-out and also at the same time, we are thinking to modify PLR in next couple of months.

Anything on the asset yield? What do you see, let's say, near

term? Talking of spreads, we ended the year with a spread of 1.94%, and when compared to last year, the spread was 2.06%.

Yes, definitely there was a 12 basis point compression in the spreads. This was expected.

We were we were expecting this because of our competition with banks, the low lending rates, the BT-outs, the rewriting. Rewriting happens when a customer applies for rewriting at a lower rate as compared to his existing rate.

Rewriting almost ₹40,000 crores of business got rewritten, where the rates got reset. We had to reduce our rewriting rates also to keep them in

in

line with in line with the market. It's going to be it's going to be a challenge maintaining NIMs, I'm telling you.

What we are trying to do, cautiously, for the past 2 years, we've been trying to diversify our business from the predominantly IHL segment into the LAP and the LRD. I would say I am reasonably satisfied.

In 2 years, we've been able to increase the proportion of our LAP and LRD business to round about 15%. Last year, it was at about 12%, this year there's a 3% increase.

Yes, nothing great if you talk about the percentage increase, but definitely a directional shift. If you realize if you understand, right, see, changing you can change products, you can change everything, but changing culture is very, very difficult.

A predominantly IHL-dominant culture and moving it to LAP and LRD is going to take some time, is going to take some time. We are definitely there.

We would ideally like to be have at least 25% of our business in the coming 2 years from LAP and LRD, which are margin accretive segments. That is the way forward.

The other thing, the affordable, of course, it'll take time because we're setting up the vertical this year. I expect another 2 to 3 years where we can get into the affordable.

The third part is our the construction finance. Right?

Last year was not a very good year for us. There was a negative growth in the wholesale book, largely because of our restriction imposed by the board on processing wholesale loans where the developers are late rated BBB and above.

Right? That we have addressed.

We have now come out with our own credit rating model wherein this stigma of BBB will be removed. I think in the next month onwards, I think we should have a fairly level playing field for construction finance also.

That will give us some because construction finance, our lending rates are slightly higher in construction finance. I think it's more about 11% near about 11%.

Right? That should help me protect my margins.

Got it, sir. If I typically see, LRD and IHL yields would be very similar, right?

No, LRD is slightly higher than IHL. In fact, my IHL starts at 7.15%.

Of course, that is for the top bracket, top notch, 800-plus CIBIL. My LRD would be starting at somewhere around about 9.25%.

Right? There is a big Okay.

LAP

would be what, closer to 10%?

Starts at 9.25%. Average, I would say, would be around about 9.75%.

On an average, I think LRD would be at 9.75%.

LAP?

LAP average would be about 9.3%, 9.4%. Lower than LRD.

Oh, LAP is lower than LRD?

Yeah.

Okay. That's

how it is in our company. Yeah.

Got it. Sir, just lastly on this affordable piece, is there any target in our mind that, let us say by FY '28, we want to scale this book to this level or something?

Renish, no, right now no target. Right now, we are planning for the baby to be born.

Now whether he becomes an IAS officer or a pilot or an astronaut, we'll see after he

is born. Sir.

Thank you and best of luck.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Good afternoon.

This growth that we are targeting of 10% to 12%, how do we recompose that segment-wise? How much are we expecting for individual home loans, how much for LAP, how much for construction finance?

Also, if you can give me segment-wise yield on books and segment-wise GS3 numbers, sir. Thanks.

Segment-wise yield on books and?

GS3 numbers, sir, gross Stage 3 numbers for segment-wise, sir.

Okay. Lokesh, just look at the segment.

Yeah. Talking about this 10% to 12% growth in the book, as I said.

Yes, retail retail, we will be targeting about near about, I think, 15%. Right?

That is what the budget is for, the budget of ₹73,000 crores. Last year, we had done ₹66,000 crores, the budget is round about 15% for retail.

Project finance, we have reduced our budget from ₹10,000 crores, because last year we just did about ₹2,000-odd crores. We have reduced it from ₹10,000 crores to ₹4,500 crores.

Honestly, heart my heart says that we should be able to do more, because now, as I said, we have come out with a new credit rating model which does not put this obstacle or limitation of BBB-rated companies. I should be able to get a fairly wider pool to source my business from.

Although we have set it at 4,500, I expect at least ₹6,000 to ₹7,000 crores from my project team to come, put together. LRD, last year, we witnessed a growth of LRD and LAP, we witnessed a 25% growth.

That is not contributing to too much of a thing of my book right now, but LRD and LAP, I would expect this 25% growth rate to continue. In fact, I would expect it to accelerate, because slowly, slowly, as we've been doing it for the past 2 years, there has been a visible momentum, a shift, change in the mindset, change in the culture, confidence level of people in writing this LRD and LAP loans has increased.

Approximately about a 25% growth in LRD and LAP this year, continuation from where we left last year. 10% to 10% growth in retail No, 15% growth in retail and approximately at least more than 100% growth in project, because ₹2,000 crores what we did last year, ₹4,500 is the minimum target which we have to achieve this year.

Shubhranshu, yes, I want to add. You wanted to know the segment-wise yield.

Cumulative yield on the IHL is around 9.03% for the year, cumulative yield, and for non-housing individual, it is 10.05%, and for others, corporate loans and project loans, it is 10.56% on cumulative basis. In totality, it is 9.21%, our cumulative yield as on 31st March '26.

GS3, sir?

What yield?

Gross Stage 3 segment-wise.

IHL is 9.03%, cumulative yield as on 31st March '26.

Non-housing Gross Stage 3.

What? Stage 3?

Yes, sir. Gross Stage 3, segment-wise.

Stage 3 segment-wise.

You mean Stage 3 Stage 3 NPA, you mean?

Correct. Correct.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Just hold on, segment-wise. Stage 3 for individual loan, it is 1.03% only, Stage 3, individual loans, and for NH individual, it is 20%, 20%-plus, 21.02%.

For NHI, it is 3.51%.

Right. Right.

Sir, if I can just squeeze in one last Yes, sir, 3.02% for?

3.51%. NHI is 3.51%, and

Non-housing individual, this is basically a LAP and LRD. This is 3.51%.

In totality, Stage 3 is 2.15%.

Understood, sir. If I can just squeeze in one last question, sir.

LIC holds a large stake in IDBI Bank and of course, it owns us as well. Is there any discussion at the board level of a merger?

Then we get that cost of fund advantage as well, right, sir? We don't have to compete with the banks anymore.

Is there

No. That has, I think, your DIPAM has already run away.

No merger of IDBI with LIC. They're not allowing that, though I

Isn't that logical, sir? This will reduce our pressure of cost of funds, sir.

Nahi. Agreed.

Wo Subhranshu kar dega jara if you have some lobbying skills, you can lobby with RBI and tell them to permit. Aise hoga.

The regulator has to permit na,

Shubhranshu. Also, we are not the right person to answer this question.

It belongs to LIC of India. Because

the regulator has to permit. The regulator is not permitting, neither RBI nor IRDAI.

Understood, sir. This was very helpful, sir.

Thank you so much.

Hi. Good morning.

Thanks for taking my questions. I've actually got two questions.

One on the corporate NPA resolution, how much is the amount pending? What is the size of the resolution that you expect to book in May?

Any more clarity on when can we expect rest of the resolutions to take place, sir?

If you look at the corporate NPA, our Stage 3, just a minute. Where is this figure?

Now that is 21.91%. You're wanting this volume.

Volume of total NPA, breakup of total

Gaurav, yes. For corporate and projects, our NPA exposure at default under Stage 3 is ₹2,837 crores.

Okay. Any timeline?

Gaurav, as I've been saying, corporate NPAs, these are a difficult piece to resolve because most of these are companies and they have their own legal teams, they're very adept in putting a spanner in the works. Then a lot of work has gone in last year, especially the big NPAs in the corporate sector which we have.

We did resolve one, ₹70 crores, through ARC sale in March of last year. There are others lined up, and I believe, touch wood, Q1 of the current financial year should be good.

Another piece of news in advance is that we have gone in for a resolution in one of the big corporate NPAs where the resolution has been finalized in May of 2025. As per RBI directives and guidelines, the effect of that resolution can only be taken after a curing period of 1 year.

May 2026 is when the effect of that resolution goes into my books. That would reduce my NPA as well as reduce my provisioning significantly.

I cannot give you the exact figures right now. Overall, I think corporate NPAs are well on their way.

Just keeping our fingers crossed. Lots of cases in the DRTs and the NCLTs, which usually takes time as you know.

Again, many of the people whom we have taken to NCLT and DRT are wanting to settle. Now, of course, the moment we get a proper settlement price which is, I would say, acceptable to both, then the resolution does happen.

On top of that, ARCs, yes, we are pursuing ARCs. There have been just two ARC sales so far.

We are trying to rework our ARC policy, try to be slightly more accommodative when possible and try to offload bigger chunks of our retail NPAs, especially in the retail segment and the specified NPAs or difficult NPAs in the corporate segment. All put together, all these three efforts would result in a significant improvement in my asset quality, provisioning requirements, and the overall improvement in the asset quality as well.

Got it, sir. No, thanks for that.

That's very helpful. If I just look at the larger picture, how are you internally thinking about the ROA in FY '27?

We ended the year at 1.78% in FY '26. From your comments, NIM is going to go down, you're going to do more of third-party distribution, so that's an addition on the cost.

DSA loans would cost anywhere between 50 to 100 basis points on disbursements as a percentage of the disbursement amount. Credit costs at best stays flat in FY '27 or potentially moves up.

In that context, how shall we think about ROA for FY '27?

No, credit cost see, as far as NIMs are concerned, yes, we have given you a slightly lower guidance, but we would be looking at maintaining the NIMs at this level. Because again, we'll have to see.

Yes, cost of borrowing is up, then as I said, we'll have to take a call on the cost of lending also, and that should happen quickly. Number one.

Number two, ROA, 1.78% for the year, right? This year, what guidance should I give you, 1.75% to 1.80% in the ROA under the existing circumstances.

If things improve or thing better, we'll be looking The target given by the board is 2%. Target given by the board is 2%.

Right?

Got it, sir. Okay.

Any plans on increasing dividends?

Dividends, we maintained it. Last year, we have increased it from 450% to 500%, right, ₹10 per share.

Going forward, any discussions at the board level? If ROA, let's say, is flat in FY '27, ROEs have been declining.

Has there been any discussion on whether you want to increase payout to hit that 15%, 16% ROE mark?

There was a discussion in the board yesterday on this. Yes, certain board members were of the opinion that we should increase dividend payout, and other board members were of the opinion that maybe we could find other ways of let me say, rewarding investors.

No decision has been taken. Let's see going forward how it goes.

Because this is a call to be taken by the collective board all together.

Perfect, sir. Thank you so much.

Hello. Hello.

Thank you. Firstly, the question with respect to affordable housing.

What is the credit composition that we are looking at? You referred the name of PNB Housing, where we have seen composition rising from 2.7% to 9.4% from year '24 to year '26, March.

How do we see affordable housing mix changing, or increasing, because it is not there right now? How it'll look like maybe 1 year down the line?

Rakesh, honestly speaking, see, the baby has not yet been born.

Right?

We're first looking at getting the baby born, and then seeing whether it is healthy or not, how it shapes up. Honestly speaking, right now we have no targets in mind for the first year.

Yes, eventually, we do realize this is a segment as a company we have to be in. We also realize that this is a segment which is completely new to us, and so we are cautious that we should not jump into it head first and burn our fingers or burn our heads, if I may say so.

We'll be setting up the vertical, and I said this vertical has to be run by people who are experts or who have experience in running or working in the affordable segment, right, affordable segment. Honestly speaking, yes, in the long run, we would expect this segment to contribute significantly to the business of the company.

Right now, we have no targets. We have not set any targets.

Got it. Just one small question, if we look at in the declining interest rates phase, we have seen our funding cost going down by 46 bps and credit yield going down by around 58 bps.

Assuming from the next year onwards, if we see rising interest rate scenario, would we see the reverse and to what extent possibly? No,

looking into the very competitive scenario which we are in, right, competing with banks, I do not see a major reversal happening with the interest rates going up. Because, yes, interest rates going up, it does give the housing finance companies the benefit of slightly higher rates or higher spreads or higher margins.

Then again, if you have to compete with your competitors, you cannot do things which are completely different from what they are doing unless and until you are able to enter into segments into which your competitors are not very comfortable with or not very, I would say, focused on. That is precisely what we're trying to address it from the two front.

Number one, knowing very well that IHL is our forte, we are not going to, I would say, dissuade people from doing IHL. Rather, we would say we would try to encourage people to get into LAP and LRD more.

We have done that. The rate of commission we are paying on LAP and LRD is slightly higher, differential as compared to IHL.

There has been a visible shift, as I said, about 15% business coming in from there as compared to 12% of last year, 3% increase in 1 year. Going forward, as this momentum picks on, people become more comfortable with selling LAP and LRD, I expect this percentage share to increase further.

These are margin accretive, right, as compared to IHL, because IHL is something which is giving me the lowest margins and lowest spreads. These are margin accretive, so that is the segment we are trying to focus on.

It cannot happen overnight. You had a company for 36 years doing IHL, we cannot suddenly expect them to suddenly shift to whole hog to LAP and LRD.

It's going to be gradual, but definitely that directionally we are there. We would like to increase the pace, of course.

That will probably give me a slightly better spread and maybe they help me to maintain my margins, which I have declared this year, my NIMs.

Rakesh, I want to add one more thing. Our spread is 1.94%.

If you see the industry average, it is on a better side. If we are able to maintain this similar spread, then I think then definitely our margins or NIM would be better in the coming year.

Yeah. Thank you, friends.

Thank you for joining us on this conference call. We have outlined what we feel are going to be our strategy or our thought process in the coming financial year.

As I said in the very beginning, with the volatile situation, the geopolitical uncertainty in the markets right now, we are keeping our fingers crossed. We are looking at whatever is happening in the geopolitical world and also on the economic front in the country.

Hopefully, things should turn out for the better because, again, we're a global this is a global This crisis affects the entire world, and I'm sure the world leaders would get together and try to get out of this crisis rather than sticking on to their egos. Hopefully, the started the year well, we started the year well, and we are hopeful, not only hopeful, I think we are positive that this year is going to be a better year than that of last year.

Looking forward to meeting you at the end of Q1 and discussing and analyzing the situation further. Thank you all.

Thank you for participating in this conference call.