Thank you, [Iqra?] , and good evening to everyone.

On behalf of Motilal Oswal, I welcome you all to Nippon Life India Asset Management's fourth quarter FY26 earnings conference call. We have along with us Mr.

Sundeep Sikka, Managing Director and CEO, and the senior management team. We thank the management for allowing us this opportunity.

I would now like to hand it over to Mr. Sundeep, sir, for his opening remarks.

Over to you, sir.

Thanks, Prayesh. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 FY26 earnings conference call.

We have with us our President and CBO, Saugata Chatterjee; CFO, Parag; Deputy CFO, Amol; Chief Digital Officer, Arpan; Head AIF, Ashish; Deputy AIF Head, Ashwin; and Matsui-san, nominee of Nippon Life Insurance Japan. I would like to share key highlights of our performance, and post that, I will hand over to Parag to speak in greater detail on the recent industry trends as well as the performance, post which we will move to Q&A.

Coming to the key highlights, I would like to start by mentioning NAM India was the fastest-growing AMC in the top 10 AMCs both in Q4 as well as FY26. This led to a continued increase in our overall AUM market share.

We had the highest increase in AUM market share in the industry in FY26. Our market share is at 8.89%, is the highest since June 2019.

Importantly, both equity net sales market share and SIP market share remained above our equity AUM market share, with both being in high single digit for the quarter. Moving to our financial performance, NAM India achieved its highest-ever annual profit after tax at INR 15.29 billion, a growth of 19% year-on-year, as well as the highest operating profit at INR 17.48 billion, a growth of 24% year-on-year.

Further, we also achieved our highest-ever quarterly operating profit of INR 4.93 billion. For FY26, the board of directors have declared a dividend payout of INR 21.50 per share, that is 91.5% of the net profits.

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

Good evening. Thank you, Sundeep.

Let me start off with markets. Equity markets in Q4 FY26 witnessed a correction from prior quarter levels.

The Nifty decreased by 14.5% quarter-on-quarter, while the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices decreased by 12.8% quarter-on-quarter and 14.4% quarter-on-quarter, respectively. The repo rate was flat quarter-on-quarter at 5.25%, while the 10-year G-sec yield increased by 45 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 7.04%.

Coming to the data on the mutual fund industry, industry quarterly average AUM grew by 20.9% year-on-year and 0.7% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 FY26 to INR 81.5 trillion. The share of equity in the overall AUM decreased by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, ending at 56.4% for Q4 FY26.

Now moving on to industry flows, even in these volatile markets, the equity category witnessed gross inflows of INR 2.78 trillion and net inflows of INR 1.23 trillion. Both the gross and net inflows were higher quarter-on-quarter.

Categories with the highest inflows were flexi cap, multi asset allocation, and mid-cap funds. The fixed income category witnessed a net outflows of INR 1.78 trillion in the quarter.

The ETF category had a net inflows of INR 709 billion, up 36% quarter-on-quarter. Moving on to SIP, industry SIP contribution for the quarter was INR 929 billion, up 19% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter.

Monthly SIP flows in March 2026 stood at INR 321 billion, at an all-time high. Contributing SIP folios decreased by 0.7 million, that is 1% lower, to 97.2 million for March 2026 over December 2025.

However, on year-on-year basis, contributing SIP folios increased by 16.1 million, that is 20% year-on-year growth. At the end of the quarter, unique investors in the mutual fund industry increased to 61.4 million, that is an increase of 13% year-on-year.

Now moving to our business performance, we closed the quarter with the total asset under management of INR 7.73 trillion. This includes mutual fund, managed accounts, offshore funds, and GIFT City.

Our mutual fund quarterly average AUM grew 30.1% year-on-year and 3.4% quarter-on-quarter to reach INR 7.25 trillion. We were the fastest-growing AMC in the top 10 in Q4 FY26 and annually in FY26, and had the highest increase in quarterly average AUM market share among all AMCs in FY26.

I would now like to share a few highlights for the quarter. Starting with the market share, our market share increased 63 basis points year-on-year and 24 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 8.89%.

Our equity market share increased 24 basis points year-on-year and was 3 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 7.16%. We achieved a high single-digit market share in net sales in equity and hybrid segment in Q4 FY26.

However, excluding NFOs, our market share would be in double digits. We continue to have the largest investor base in the mutual fund industry, with 23.8 million unique investors.

We are humbled to have over 1 in 3 mutual fund investor invest with us. I would also like to touch upon some of the important aspects of our systematic book.

I am happy to share that there has been continued momentum in our systematic flows. Our monthly systematic book rose by 17% year-on-year to INR 37.2 billion for March 2026.

This resulted in an annualized systematic book of INR 447 billion. SIP market share stood at 9.84% for March 2026, marginally higher than 9.82% as of December 2025.

Moving on briefly to ETF segment, we continue to be one of the largest ETF players, with AUM of INR 2.42 trillion and a market share of 21.4%, which increased by 234 basis points year-on-year and 109 basis points quarter-on-quarter. Our share in the industry ETF folios is 45%.

We also have 52% share of ETF volume on the NSE and the BSE. Our ETF average daily volumes across key funds remain far higher than the rest of the industry.

The industry continued to witness a surge in gold and silver ETF volumes in the quarter. Combined AUM in these two ETFs for NIMF was INR 848 billion as of March 31, 2026, up 23% quarter-on-quarter.

In quarterly average AUM terms, our gold and silver ETF represent 36% of ETF AUM and 12% of the NIMF AUM. During the quarter, we completed two debt index fund NFOs, raising INR 8.6 billion cumulatively.

These were Nippon India CRISIL-IBX Financial Services 3 to 6 Months Debt Index Fund and Nippon India CRISIL-IBX Financial Services 9 to 12 Months Debt Index Fund. Moving on to the digital front, digital purchase transaction and new SIP registration rose to 5.04 million in Q4 FY26, up 44% year-on-year.

We had our highest-ever monthly transaction in January 2026 at 1.79 million. Digital business contributed 77% of the total new purchase transaction in Q4 FY26.

During the quarter, NIMF digital business intensified its focus on long-term investor behavior through multiple initiatives aimed at strengthening SIP habits and re-engaging terminated SIP investors amid market volatility, helping rebuild confidence in disciplined, long-term investing despite short-term noise. Now, I would like to briefly update on our subsidiaries and GIFT City.

Starting off with AIF, under Nippon India AIF, we offer category 2 and category 3 AIFs and have raised cumulative commitment of INR 93.3 billion across various schemes, up 26% year-on-year. In Q4 FY26, we raised INR 4 billion of commitment across various asset classes.

Fundraising is currently underway for two of our listed equity AIFs, one private credit fund, and direct VC fund. Built on the success of Nippon India Credit Opportunities Fund, NCOF 1, we launched the second series, NCOF 2, and successfully conducted first close in Q4 FY26.

With the first capital call, the fund is drawn down to the extent of 25%. On the offshore front, our AUM stood at INR 139 billion.

We continue to expand our footprint in new geographies across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Moving to GIFT City, as stated previously, we currently have two feeder funds, namely Nippon India ETF Nifty 50 BeES GIFT and Nippon India Large Cap Fund GIFT.

The AUM in these funds stood at USD 38 million. Now on to our financial performance.

For Q4 FY26, revenue stood at INR 7.39 billion, up 30% year-on-year and 5% quarter-on-quarter. Other income stood at negative INR 0.34 billion, lower both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter due to the market volatility.

Operating expenses stood at INR 2.45 billion, up 16% year-on-year and down 1% quarter-on-quarter. Operating profits stood at INR 4.93 billion, up 39% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter.

Profit after tax stood at INR 3.85 billion, up 29% year-on-year and down 5% quarter-on-quarter. For FY26, operating profit grew by 24% year-on-year.

Profit after tax grew by 19% year-on-year. As Sundeep mentioned earlier, for FY26, the board of directors have declared a dividend payout of INR 21.50 per share, that is approximately 91.5% of the net profit.

This includes proposed final dividend of INR 12.50 per share. Lastly, the board of directors in their meeting today have approved the following ESOP based on the recommendation of NRC: grant of 3,87,448 stock units under Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited Performance Linked Stock Unit Scheme 2023 at INR 10 per stock unit; grant of 15,96,475 stock options under the Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited Employee Stock Option Scheme 2023 at INR 898.04 per stock option.

With this, I would like to conclude my remarks and open the floor for questions.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on a great set of numbers.

A few questions, sir. On the yield movement this particular quarter, just wanted to understand whether this is primarily a product mix shift towards the ETFs or is there anything else to read into that in terms of how the expansion has happened in terms of the margin?

Also, if you could call out the yield by category, including the ETF category also, how it has played out this quarter vis-a-vis last quarter? That's my first question.

Secondly, sir, in terms of the SIP flow numbers that you have reported, the numbers have been broadly in that ₹3,600 to ₹3,700 crore kind of a range over the last 5-6 months. I just wanted to understand how should we think about this trend going forward, and in terms of the flow in the various schemes that we have, has there been any change or movement?

If you could give some color on new SIPs created vis-a-vis the redemptions, etc., that would be very helpful. In conjunction, if we could also discuss about the net inflows in equity and the active equity category, how they are looking vis-a-vis the SIP flows.

Lastly, sir, yeah, just one last question on the ESOP cost, how to think about the next 4 years? Yeah.

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

Yeah. Swarnabha, the yield movement is mainly due to the change in the asset mix, as you mentioned.

That has resulted a slight increase, marginally higher yield in the current quarter. The yields on equity is 53 basis, 55 ex of arbitrage.

On debt, it's 25 basis. On liquid, it remains in the range of around 11-12 basis.

On ETF, it's slightly higher than 25 basis overall. Blended yield is marginally up 1 basis.

On the ESOP cost, the the next year ESOP or the current year ESOP for quarter ESOP is ₹11 crore, the overall ESOP for the current year is ₹43-odd crore. For the new plan, the next year ESOP cost will be in the range of around ₹35-odd crore.

The overall cost on ESOP of the new plan will be in the range of around ₹70 to ₹75 crore over the next 4 years.

Okay. For the next 4 years,

and

we can take a staggered approach in the numbers.

Yeah. Generally first year is generally it's higher, you because it's 140 sort of numbers.

Right, sir. Understood.

Hi. Coming to the SIP trends, like you mentioned, the SIP flows are in the range of about ₹3,600, ₹3,700 crore.

You would have seen last quarter also in our call we had mentioned that the SIP net inflow, which is coming in the industry, has sort of flattened. We are also sort of seeing a similar trend in our case.

Along with that, what we have seen in the last say 6-odd months, we have started now building SIP book across few other categories, mostly in the hybrids and in the commodities funds. One or two categories, like I had mentioned in the last quarter call, flexi cap and sector funds, these are two categories where we really need to build our SIP book.

We are working on that very closely. Hopefully, that will keep giving us slightly better net sales growth as we go ahead from here on.

The good part is the SIP book market share is more than our equity net sales market share and equity market share, which is definitely the reason why our equity market share is growing. That should be the parameter which one needs to track, and we are tracking that very closely.

Hopefully, that should keep helping us have a stable growth in market share.

Sir. Understood.

Just to clarify, the equity net sales market share you had mentioned in your opening remarks is would be in high single digits. Am I correctly

remembered that? If you exclude the NFOs, it is in double digit.

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

Okay. Very helpful, sir.

Thank you so much, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question is on the regulation.

Regulation that came with effect from 1st April, which has a potential impact of 5 basis points on equity AUM. Now that we are towards the end of April, just wanted to know what steps we have taken to mitigate the impact, and maybe how should we see that impact going forward?

Mohit, the impact will be in the range of around 3 to 4 basis, which we will try to minimize even though it's the first month, but it is over the period we will try to minimize for the finance, for the P&L numbers.

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

Yes.

We're going to pass on the entire thing to the distributors. It's a pass-through.

Understood. That's very helpful.

Second is that the tax rate was very low in Q4. What was the reason for that?

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

That is why there is a slightly lower taxation on that side.

Understood. My last question is towards the share of folios in the ETF space.

That has come down from 53% in Q4 '25 to 45% in the current quarter. Are we facing a lot of competition within this space, or how should we look at it?

If you see the color of the ETF flows which are coming in various categories in the industry, the commodity ETFs have seen some higher inflows in the last 6 months, and typically in the last 3 months barring say March. It's not competition.

It's more related to how the market looks at multiple options when they are trying to diversify their product bouquet. I think we still remain highest on volumes.

Our volumes are the highest. Our inflows from a net inflow point of view is still higher.

We continue to build on that perspective in the market. See, ETF is more about volumes.

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

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

Right. No, this is very helpful.

Thanks, and wish you all the best.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

Just a few questions from my side. Firstly, as you mentioned, right, that the SIP momentum in the industry itself has kind of stabilized, and post that also we've seen markets not doing great, right?

Do you see any further slowdown, or how should we kind of read into this from an industry trends perspective? Especially if you could highlight how are the trends different between, say, a do-it-yourself model versus a distributed model?

That's my question number one. Question number two is, last couple of quarters, we've seen a very strong traction on silver and gold ETFs in terms of flows and because of which we have kind of benefited on the yields.

How do you see the traction at least in the near term on these categories? My last question will be on the expenses front, overall expenses.

You've been guiding about a 15% growth in overall expenses. Should we kind of stick to that, and as basis points of AUM, we are still higher than a few of our peers.

Do you think that we structurally over the next couple of years, we should start tending towards that kind of a number, or how should we look at expenses? Those would be my questions.

Thanks.

Prayesh, the expense number, I will take it, and then Chatterjee will add on to the SIP thing. The expenses, yeah, our guidance will still remain in the range of around 15-15% year-on-year ex of ESOP.

That that is what our guidance remains. The the basis, the idea is always that we should have a operating leverage, and as as the AUM grows, the operating leverage should kick in and should help us to reduce the basis over longer period.

That that will be our thought process. Chatterjee, on the SIP.

Yeah. I think on the SIPs, it's a good question.

See, what we are seeing is that the fintech platforms are definitely aiding growth of the SIP book in the industry. The client behavior might be slightly different than what comes in from a distributor-led SIP inflow.

The cycles are a bit shorter when it comes to a fintech investors, but the good part is they are ready to commit more, and hence the average ticket size is also now moving up. That's a good trend.

The other side is when it comes to distributor-led SIPs, we are finding that these volatile conditions are leading them to educate the investor and show better retention. Challenges will always remain, but as we progress from here on, and more SIPs moving towards hybrid category and large-cap-oriented funds will lead to better retention in times to come.

That's our thought process and view.

Just on that question on the silver and gold ETFs, what is the kind of traction that you've seen in the near term on these products?

See, I think as you would have seen, I think gold, silver, and why only gold, silver, I think most of the flagship ETFs, I think because of our volumes, liquidity, I think we normally get a higher share. Last 2-3 years, because of gold and silver, the increase in prices, we definitely saw a lot of new investors coming in.

Last 2 months, ever since the price has come down, we have also seen a little bit, a decrease. Interestingly, I think this Akshaya Tritiya, which was there recently, I think out of the total traded volume on the stock exchange that day, 63% of the volume was of Nippon commodities.

I think we continue building a strong foundation. I think we don't want to look at the numbers on a monthly or weekly basis.

I think the key fundamental things, which is basically the tracking error, the liquidity, these are the two things we continue focusing on, and there's a natural pull for the products. We feel wherever commodities, depending on the cycles the way they move, I think investors whenever they come, I think we remain one of the first port of calls.

Also to add, we are also seeing a lot of SIPs coming in this category. That will really give stability to this category in times to come, which used to happen about 5 years, 10 years back.

I think that's a good trend. I hope we have answered your question, Prayesh?

Sure.

Yes, sir.

Am I audible?

Please go ahead.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

Just a couple of questions surrounding the SIF business. One is that when is the SIF business actually starting on the ground?

Is there any specific timeline for that, and is there anything holding it up? That's number one.

Number two, what is the outlook for this business from a medium-term, maybe a couple of years perspective, and also long-term, 5-year perspective from an AUM standpoint and also perhaps profitability? Thank you.

I think I will take this second question first. I think this is a new business line.

We somehow are convinced I think this is something can become very big. This is something what ETFs were about 10 years back.

Very difficult to put a number to it, that 10 years back if somebody would have asked about the ETF business, I would not have been able to say how big it can become. I think we are seeing this business as an important pillar in times to come, point number one.

That is one of the reasons we've built up a very strong team under the leadership of industry veteran, Andrew. I think what will be the numbers, what will be the AUM, we do not know, but I think we clearly feel this is a product and a category, there is a demand for that, there's a separate market for that, there's a separate niche, and it requires a specialized skill set for that.

We are getting ready, this is an important opportunity. To your question of when do we hit the ground, I think while, yes, we have not formally launched our product, definitely there's a lot of work happening at the back end to decide and work on back-testing of certain products and all that we feel we want to launch, because no idea trying to launch a SIF, which is a mutual fund plus 10-20% variation of the mutual fund.

I think you really want to be differentiated and add value to investors. To your question, I think we are very serious for this business because we feel it takes care of a separate need which some investors have.

I think Andrew and team are already working on it.

Thank you.

Thank you, and good evening, and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Two questions from my side.

Firstly, about GIFT City, wanted to understand the strategy and if you have any more products planned. Second is just about the little overhang with the SEBI fine and everything, is there any timeline on resolution?

I think let me take the second one first. I think at this point of time, we do not have anything new to disclose other than that has been disclosed to the stock exchanges.

I think as and when we hear from SEBI, I think we'll inform to the stock exchanges. That is the thing, point number one.

Point number two, on the GIFT City, I think again GIFT City, we feel I think GIFT City is again becoming an important gateway into India. I think while there is a lot of discussion happening on money moving out of India, launching products which is under LRS, but we see a bigger opportunity of money coming into India.

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

We have a team, and we have some more details on slide number 25.

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

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers.

I have this one question on SIP folios. We have seen the SIP folios have been declining on a sequential basis.

Any read-through out there, and if you could just help us understand what are the SIP trends in terms of flows with respect to the month of April? Secondly, I just wanted to know your thoughts on the stickiness of SIP flows in the commodity ETF segment.

Yeah. These are my two questions.

The SIP inflows, if you take Q3 and Q4, of course, there is a jump in the Q4 numbers vis-a-vis Q3. Like I mentioned, November, December, Jan, Feb was a bit of a tough phase for the industry, as well as the inflows were lesser.

I think March we have seen a slightly better month. The trends continue to be better as we go ahead.

That helps us in net SIP growth every month, which probably will start now reflecting further in the SIP book. We have seen in March our SIP book has improved.

Which is a clear indication that the investors are coming in with slightly better understanding of the volatility. That's the first part.

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

Got it, sir. Thank you so much.

Okay.

Hi. Good evening, everyone.

My first question is for Sundeep sir. Congratulations on the new role as well.

Sir, on the SIP again, like what we've seen in the last few months, like you mentioned, there was a little bit of a slowdown in net SIP inflows. Just wanted to check here whether you've seen people take money out and kind of take it out of the mutual funds itself or, compared to the past, you've seen people kind of staying on within the mutual fund ecosystem and moving that money into some of the safer products or, let's say, at least more exciting products like the commodity ETF?

Just some qualitative sense on that. Secondly, in terms of the fintech versus traditional channel, you mentioned that the fintech channel ticket sizes have gone up.

If you could just give some sense of what is the relative difference in terms of the fintech SIP book versus the traditional SIP book? That's the first question, sir.

Okay. SIPs, when it comes to SIPs which are coming through the fintech platform, like I mentioned, they're a bit of a short cycle because they come with a past track record in perspective, and if there is a volatility, which is what is the fact in the market today, they tend to stop and restart.

The good part is they don't exit the AUM. They restart a new journey, and that's the reason why the SIP discontinuation number in the industry looks to be on the higher side.

When it comes to net SIP accretion, every month there is a positive accretion which is happening. When it comes to the average ATS, I think the ATS is sequentially moving up on the digital side.

Maybe they are in the range of 60% to 70% of the regular SIP which comes in from the distribution channel, but the catch-up has been very good and very fast. The education drive which is happening digitally through fintech platforms and through the asset management companies is really helping the investors to commit a slightly larger SIP amount on a monthly basis.

I hope I have answered your question?

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

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

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

91%, Abhijit.

91%. Perfect.

Understood. Those were my questions.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. One simple question.

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

basically the reason for us is that we are maintaining the EBITDA margin. That is what we have been continuing.

Even though there is a trajectory that the telescoping pricing will keep on dropping the overall TER, but we are continuing to keep the margin intact for so many years. The question or the reason is mainly the mix in AUM.

We almost contribute to 33% of the ETF, and we are significantly higher in ETF in our overall AUM, and that's why our margins are lower. The idea is to grow the overall profitability year-on-year and grow as a percentage growth which is in line or higher than the most of the industry player.

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

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

I think broadly, I think that's for our AIF business, as we have signed up a non-binding agreement, and I think the idea is I think we will be, I think, launching products in AIF. I think the idea is I think we clearly see an opportunity to get a lot of overseas money, and especially the alternate and the infrastructure side.

Also, I think as far as the JV is concerned, it is also helps in collaboration not only in the AIF, where it will be a JV, but also within a mutual fund business whether from a capability of international funds, ETF, and also offshore money. I think it will play out as the idea is to keep getting ready as India keeps getting stronger.

I think more foreign money will come into India, and I think building capabilities, access, I think we were always very strong in Japan. Now this JV gives us an access to Europe.

Got it. Just one last question.

Like in India, we have feeder funds going into US, for example, there'll be a Vanguard fund or a JP Morgan fund. Not specifically related to Nippon, but generally as an industry level, is there anything moving towards making a fund of fund kind of structure being made available in India so that actually the retail money can come in?

Because I understand, okay, GIFT City is there, but the ticket size for GIFT City will also be higher, but the feeder fund can actually drive much more retail AUM. Is there any work at the industry level to create feeder funds coming into India?

I think I will not be able to comment on behalf of the industry. I think as a company, our focus is always keeping investor in mind, I think, and as and when we feel there is an appetite and there's a need, I think we will be open to launch it.

To your earlier question, having DWS with us, DWS is one of the largest international players also in ETF space, ETF and passives. I wouldn't want to say it will happen, but depending as and when there's a need from the investors and the demand from the investors, we feel we are in a strong position to launch products like these.

Got it. Understood.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you all for taking out time to join us on the call today.

If you have any other further queries, we will be happy to address the same post the call. Thank you.