Hi. Very good afternoon to all of you.

We are here to discuss Muthoot Finance Q1 results. For that, we have the entire management team with us, starting with Mr.

George Alexander Muthoot, who is the Managing Director, and then we have our four whole-time directors: Mr. Eapen Alexander, who is an Executive Director; Mr.

K. R.

Bijimon, who is an Executive Director; and Mr. Oommen Mammen, who is the CFO.

Without further ado, I'll hand the call over to the Managing Director, Mr. George Alexander Muthoot, for his opening remarks.

We'll follow that up with question-and-answers. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Sanket. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

A very warm welcome to all of you joining us today for Muthoot Finance Limited earnings call to discuss our financial performance for the first quarter ended 30th June 2026. I hope all of you and your families are doing well.

Joining me on the call today are members of our senior management team: our Chairman is there; Directors are also there; Joint Managing Director is also there; COO Mr. Bijimon is also there; and the CFO, Mr.

Oommen is also there; and Bijimon is also there. Before I delve into the quarter's operational and financial highlights, I want to express my gratitude to our customers, employees, and stakeholders for their continued trust.

We are honored that Muthoot Finance continues to be recognized as India's number one most trusted financial services brand for the 10th consecutive year, along with being certified as a Great Place to Work for five consecutive years. These accolades demonstrate the strength of our legacy and our commitment to sustainable, long-term stakeholder value.

I'm delighted to report that financial year '27 has started on a strong note, continuing the robust momentum seen in the previous quarters. Our consolidated loan AUM has expanded by 43% year-on-year, reaching ₹1,91,000 crores as of June 30th compared to ₹1,33,000 crores in June 2025.

On a sequential basis, consolidated AUM grew by 5%. The consolidated profit after tax for Q1 financial year '27 delivered a 43% year-on-year growth, coming in at ₹2,825 crores.

Standalone AUM or loan AUM registered a 43% year-on-year growth, reaching ₹1,72,000 crores. The standalone profit after tax reached ₹2,550 crores, recording a growth of 25% year-on-year.

The standalone income grew by 33% year-on-year to ₹7,603 crores. Our return metrics remain best in class, with the standalone return on average assets of 6.09% and return on average equity of 26.6% during the quarter.

Capital adequacy remains comfortably well above the regulatory requirement at 20.3%. Our core gold loan business continues to demonstrate exceptional market demand and operating leverage.

As I said, the consolidated gold loan AUM rose to ₹1,75,000 crores and standalone gold loan AUM to ₹1,63,000 crores, representing a 44% year-on-year increase. Regarding new customer acquisition during financial year '27, we disbursed ₹8,937 crores in gold loans to over 4,82,000 new customers.

This reinforces our strong customer retention and expanding reach. The active customer base expanded to 65.77 lakhs in June, adding over 1,63,000 active customers during the quarter, up from 64 lakhs in March '26.

The branch productivity efficiency per branch improved significantly, with average gold loan AUM per branch increasing by 40% year-on-year to ₹32.47 crores per branch. The asset quality remains stellar.

Credit losses on gross loans stood at an absolute minimum of 0.05%. We expanded our physical presence during the quarter by adding 86 new branches across the group, taking our group branch network to 7,654.

Our subsidiaries are also performing smoothly and accelerating our mission of building a diversified non-banking financial services. Muthoot Money Limited witnessed exponential growth.

Loan AUM grew by 111% year-on-year to ₹10,550 crores, driven primarily by the strong growth of its gold loan portfolio. The total revenue surged 137% year-on-year to ₹511 crores and profit after tax increased by 366% to ₹172 crores.

Asset quality improved further, with Stage 3 assets declining to 0.67%. Belstar Microfinance showed strong recovery in profitability, delivering a profit after tax of ₹66 crores for this quarter compared to a net loss in the corresponding quarter last year.

Loan AUM stood at ₹7,842 crores as industry-wide stress moderated disbursement growth. Following the regulatory enabling for MFIs to expand non-microfinance portfolio, Belstar opened 45 new gold loan branches in Q1 to diversify its product base.

Muthoot Homefin AUM grew by 13% year-on-year to ₹3,496 crores and profit after tax stood at ₹4 crores, marking a 114% year-on-year increase. Asia Asset Finance, our Sri Lankan subsidiary, posted impressive performance, with AUM expanding 51% year-on-year to LKR 5,270 crores and profit after tax surging 113% year-on-year to LKR 43 crores.

Muthoot Insurance Brokers generated a premium collection of ₹70 crores and achieved a profit after tax of ₹17 crores. To wrap up, we believe the regulatory changes implemented from April '26 in the gold loan industry are a structural positive.

They strengthen transparency and drive formalization, which favors established, trusted players like Muthoot Finance. While our primary gold loan business continues to perform solidly, our non-gold-loan portfolios spanning microfinance, housing, and business loans are contributing steadily to our total assets.

Coupled with our omnichannel digital framework, we are well positioned to capitalize on India's structural growth opportunities in financial inclusion. Thank you once again for joining us today.

I now open the floor for your questions and look forward to an engaging discussion. Thank you.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

My question is that we've seen a very sharp drop in the yield this quarter, almost something like 300 bps. A lot of other players which have reported have not really seen yield drop at all.

Just wanted to know is this something based on the new strategy that we are targeting to compete with banks, or what is it? Because this 300 bps seems a little high, and not that suddenly competition had gone up in the last 3 months.

Just some comments here, sir.

Thank you. The the yield in the quarter four was 20.76% and this year this quarter it is 17.93%.

I agree there's a drop in the yield due to a a a variety of reasons like probably we have also reduced our interest rates in this quarter, or the yield because of we are giving loans at lower rates also. Higher rates are also there, lower rates are also there.

Probably this quarter, some of the lower rate loans would have taken more precedence. Number two, last year, third quarter and fourth quarter, where we saw a 20% etc.

yield, was actually a a very good year where our recoveries were also very good. There were a lot of loans which got renewed also.

Renewal and rolled over last year, till about last year, there there were a lot of renewals and the interest collections, etc. were were very good.

That is also factoring to one of the reasons for that. Probably as a steady state, 18 plus minus maybe 18% to 18.5% should be the normal yield which we should be looking at going forward also.

What we have now is 18%, 17.93%. Probably it will going forward this year also, it should be 18% etc.

I think that's a decent yield. What we got last year should should be considered as a windfall windfall one-time.

Anyway we were able to cash in on that. We are the we have got the benefit of that.

Going forward, with new strategies, etc., new strategies to grow the gold loan book, etc., probably there can be a there was a concerted there was a determined effort to bring down the yield also. We have brought down the yield, but AUMs would be will keep rising hereafter.

Sir, thank you. That was very detailed explanation.

Sir, second question is that for this year also now when you see this gold prices which are volatile, second is that we have these new guidelines which have started, the 75%, 80%, 85% LTV across life of the loans. Just wanted two questions here.

One is your opening guidance for FY '27, like you generally give 15%, what would you like to give on the AUM side this year? Then second is that this gold loan product has generally been a product where customers don't like to pay monthly interest.

It's more been a bullet product for as long as the 15, 16 years I have tracked this. At the branches are we able to drive any change?

Do we need to drive any change? Because the Stage 1, Stage 2 loans may actually increase because of this regulation, nothing related to business.

The thoughts on these two things, sir.

I think you're right in saying that, yes, the regulatory changes. Actually in the first 2 months, April and towards latter half of May, we were actually bringing in the new product, we were training our staff also for the new product, new rates, new schemes, the 75%, 80%, 85% schemes, etc.

As you rightly said, we need to maybe retrain our staff and the customers to think of paying at least once in a quarter, if not monthly, once in a quarter. I think after some time we are seeing good response from the customers there, not that everybody is paying monthly, but if not monthly, in 2 months or 3 months.

That is what we are trying to implement, and I'm sure that will do well. After May, we have seen very good traction in the AUM growth, and I don't want to give any guidance to that, but we will revise the guidance in the next quarter.

While we're reviewing the next quarter, we will revise the guidance. AUM should keep growing, as I said, the yield also should be in the range of 18%.

That's what I'm thinking. It should be in the coming quarters.

Sir. Thank you so much for these detailed answers.

Thank you and all the best.

Hi, sir. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking my question.

Firstly, just on this yield drop thing, wanted to understand there are no interest recoveries or any one-offs in this interest income number, right? Last couple of quarters our top line was

Yeah, you're right. A lot of old loans which were there, we were able to recover a lot of interest there.

That happened in the last two, three quarters. I think those are behind us now.

Okay. This is a clean interest income number.

We are looking to increase this slightly, as you said, to 18%, 18.5%?

I didn't say that we are going to increase, but I think it should settle at that level. It should settle at that level,

18%, 18.5%.

Sure.

Understood. Just overall in terms of disbursement LTV, now that the new norms are out, how has our average disbursement LTV changed with these new norms?

For the entire disbursements done this quarter?

A certain percentage of the customers are interested in the 85%, with it below 2.5 lakhs, but majority of them still continue to take 75%. That range is what is still the disbursement rate.

Not that everybody is taking 85% etc., there are some people. Then the advantage is that we can offer a bouquet of products and bouquet of choice to the customer.

Somebody wants to pay monthly interest, somebody wants to pay yearly interest, yearly interest also scheme is there. Of course, the LTV will get reduced because you have to factor in the next interest dues also for the next 12 months.

Many combinations are there, people have got more choice, and that is why I said it took April and May for us to bring out good schemes, etc. I'm sure now the schemes have taken place and we see good traction.

Yes, I think to answer your question, the originating LTV has really not gone up. That was your question, I suppose.

Sir, okay. Let me give an example.

If somebody wants a 12-month loan, ₹2 lakh, at what LTV will you give? Will it be the same if he wants a bullet loan versus an EMI?

No, that is different, no? In case of bullet payment, if it is a 12 months, we have to reduce the interest accrual.

If it is less than 2.5 lakhs, 85 minus interest accrual. Between 2.5 and 5 lakh, it will be

Maybe he will get about 75, 77% or so.

If it is a regular interest payment, you will get the 85, 80, and 75.

Given that most of our customers, they pay interest off and on, they don't pay it regularly, do we just assume that all the loans are bullet loans and then do that 85 minus interest accrual? No, so, Piran,

we have all the schemes present now, and that's what MD sir was saying that it'll take some time for the employees to settle, customers also to settle at particular scheme. Mostly we are seeing that customers are taking somewhere around 75%.

You can pay monthly interest, you can pay once in 3 months, once in 9 months, once in 12 months. We have different schemes, but then LTV will be different in many of these things.

If you have to deduct something, if somebody is prepared to pay the monthly interest, then if loan is below 2.5 lakhs, he can get all the 85%.

Understood. Sir, what would the difference in the interest rate be between a monthly interest loan and a bullet loan as of today?

No, it is not linked to interest, etc. It is not at all linked.

Just because he's agreed to pay monthly or he's paying only once in 12 months, there is no interest difference, etc. Schemes have different interest, it is not based on the repayment promise of 1 month and 3 months and 12 months.

All right.

Okay. Understood.

Just lastly, sir, now this quarter we've again turned around in terms of customer growth. Last two quarters, it was declining.

What factors do you think led to this pickup in customer count or tonnage growth this quarter?

Customer count definitely, newer customers are coming, but tonnage growth is actually what I was always saying, the gold price. When the gold price falls, the tonnage goes up because he has to bring more gold today.

If the price was high, he brings only lesser quantity of gold. That's what I've been trying to tell last four quarters, but I think people now will start understanding.

If the gold price falls, the tonnage will keep on increasing because somebody wants ₹1 lakh, earlier need to give 10 grams, now he has to give 12 grams, simple as that.

Understood. Yes, sir.

That's it from my end. Thanks and wish you all the best.

Hi, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Sir, my question was on the product side. Are we still continuing with the vanilla gold loan product or we have also launched new products on the income-generating segment front?

I think our COO was saying that we have different products: monthly interest product, income-generating product, less than 2.5 lakhs. Actually, today a bouquet of products are there and too many people are spoiled for choice today.

No, the income-generating loans, just to take advantage of LTV, we have not launched. I think that one may not be the correct way unless we are able to assess the repayment capacity as well as the end use of the product.

That may lead to problem. Many companies have started.

I believe with a correct way, we will be starting it soon.

Not just because somebody says he's income-generating loan, we can't give an income-generating. We have to assess the repayment capacity, etc., and then give.

If you bypass that, we will fall into problem.

Right. Got it, sir.

Basically we will plan to launch that and wherein we can look at end use as well as evaluate the income. Then in that case, would we also comfortably give higher LTV or would we want to prudently manage it at below 85%?

We also give higher LTV, no problem. If you say 85% LTV and less than 2.5 lakhs, we take that risk because we see maybe 2%, 3%, 5% of our portfolio will be there, that doesn't matter.

Right. Got it, sir.

The second question was on the tenure front. While you highlighted about that to the previous participant on the calculation side, but have we brought down the tenure to let's say 3 months, 6 months for our gold loan product?

I think I told you, we have a 3-months product, we have a monthly interest product, we have a 6-month product, 9 months, and 12 months. People can choose and take, but then when he chooses the longer-term bullet repayment, the LTV has to be recalculated to a lower level, that's it.

Right. Got it.

Then in that case, sir, are we seeing more interest for shorter tenure and that is why the increase in GS2 as well because it's all interlinked from that recognition standpoint?

No, interest rates are not based on that. I think that is not something which is because of tenure-based, etc., is based on many other factors which I don't want to discuss now here.

Got it, sir. I'll take it offline maybe.

Thank you so much for answering my questions.

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, I wanted to check if a rating upgrade is in the offing. Are there any discussions with the rating agencies regarding an upgrade?

Thank you for attending the call on a Saturday. We work, but I am happy that some other finance people are also working.

To answer your question, I think CFO will answer the question.

No, glad that you asked. I hope analysts from CRISIL and ICRA are also there on the call, and they are listening to it.

Let him answer. No, we always have our hopes and our expectations,

but again,

as Oommen said, it is with the ICRA and the rating agency. Probably they should see good things happening now.

No discussions that have happened, and it's entirely that the management may have had with the agencies regarding this, or can we expect that sometime in the future?

We discuss regularly. Every 6 months we engage with them.

We open our hearts to them. We open everything and show them, but then it takes time for them to also get comfortable and do this.

All

right, sir. Sir.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. Good afternoon, sir.

Sir, my question is with regards to the increasing competition in the segment. Of course, we have seen the competition from the banks.

We have dealt with that in the past. Now increasingly most of the major NBFCs are also increasingly focused on the gold loan segment.

Will there be any change in strategy in house in terms of interest rates or the way you branch out the network in terms of how you will deal with the increasing competition from other NBFCs?

Competition from total NBFC business today is only ₹4 lakh crores. Total bank gold loan is ₹16 lakh crores.

Where is ₹16 lakh crores, where is ₹4 lakh crores? Anyway, from NBFCs, etc., we don't have a separate strategy for any NBFCs, but with all the competitions, whether it is bank or NBFC, we have the same good customer service, quick service, and customers generally feel that Muthoot is the right place to come for a gold loan.

That is what has been our brand, our strength. Muthoot has always been the forefront of marketing the concept of gold loan.

People definitely refer to that feel that is there. Competition will come.

There is no special strategy for competition. We will do our best.

Our customer service will be the best. We will do all that is necessary.

Probably, as I was saying in the beginning also, that we may see some yield compressions, etc. Then, what we have earlier maybe 20% etc., we said it will be around 18% plus, so that's still a decent yield for us because we have the legacy book and legacy portfolio.

The new players who are coming will have to contend with low-interest-rate schemes to compete with banks, they have also to compete with banks, to compete with others also. We having a legacy portfolio with us, legacy customers with us, we have some advantages there.

These are some things which, as the quarters go, we will see the fittest will survive and the non-focused people will go. That is what we have always seen earlier also.

People who are not fully focused or fully into this have just started a gold loan business just for starting a gold loan business, I don't think they will be able to sustain. Somebody who is keen, fully with the gold loan, like Muthoot, probably we have an opportunity there.

Let us wait for the next few quarters to see what is going to happen.

Got it, sir. Sir, and in terms of geographical focus, South is still 49% of your total AUM.

Going forward, how much scope of growth do you see from the other more recent areas, like say Eastern India and Northern India? Do you still see scope for growth there, or do you think the pace of growth in those geographies?

Thank you.

No, no. See, gold loan business is growing everywhere.

South is just that South, it started much earlier, maybe a few decades earlier, started in South. People of South are more comfortable with a gold loan.

That comfort is generally catching up in other states also, North, East, and West. Our geographical location or starting a loan, we are present everywhere, there is no place we are not present.

It is just that whether we want to add more branches in a place, maybe at Lucknow, we want to add more branches, we will add more branches in Lucknow, or Jaipur, or Delhi, or Jalandhar, etc. We have branch there, we have regional offices there.

Wherever we see a business opportunity, we have an ear to the ground in all these places because we have marketing and sales people and also our field people working, they know where the potential is, and then we open branches there. There is no geography we have left out.

As you said, South is concentrated more because the business also is more in South. If you look at the statistics of gold loan, 60 70% of the gold loan business is from South, even for banks.

30% only from all the rest. South had a head start in gold loan business, whether it is banks or NBFC, still continues, but there's potential in both places.

Answering your question, we'll be opening branches wherever there is a potential or wherever we see there is scope for getting more new business.

Got it, sir. One last question, if I can chip in.

What is your plan for Belstar? Because even after so many years, I think we are undergrowing in terms of the potential there.

We are just at ₹7,800 crores. Now that we are seeing that microfinance segment has stabilized across the country, will you start getting aggressive in terms of loan growth over there?

Thank you.

To answer first your question, you won't be aggressive in microfinance. That's the first answer.

The second is we would like to have a very calibrated less risky portfolio. We have actually given instructions to the Belstar team to do microfinance only with selected good-quality customers, not just for the sake of.

See, microfinance, one quarter you will see doing well, next quarter you will see something else happening, after three quarters you will see something else. It is like that.

It is a cyclical business, etc. We have been trying to take advantage or trying to use the facility of the 40% other loans by doing gold loans also there.

Today, we have 100-plus branches opened, and maybe another 50 in the next 3 months to do exclusively gold loan, and they have started, they're doing well. We'll have a mix of secured lending and unsecured lending.

Unsecured lending, microfinance, we would like to give only to good-quality customers, not for the sake of AUM, because we don't want to show anybody that we need to do a lot of AUM, etc. If it is low, it is low.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

That's it from my side.

Sir, good afternoon, and thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions.

One, I was going through your last quarter transcript, which was as of 14th

Can you speak a little more loud, please? Speak a little more loud.

Am I audible now?

Better.

Okay. Sir, I was going through your last quarter transcript, which was as of 14th May, and at that time you had indicated that you did not see the need to lower your yields from then 20%.

For your yields to drop 300 basis points quarter-on-quarter, the yields from mid-May to June would have to be lower than 18%. Is that understanding correct?

If yes, then can you tell me what is the average yield for the month of June or maybe July? That's my first question.

Raghav, there are a couple of things, as MD sir said, you know. Last year, was an extraordinary year where, we saw the gold prices increasing, top-ups happening.

Where we were able to do most of the, recovery collections without the needing to give any discounts to the customers, or auctioning of large amounts of gold under recovery, etc. That is one thing.

Then the there was, NPA accounts, we have we could collect most of the full income. Third, the ARC investment receipts we we are directly because the entire principal recovery has happened, the remaining amount was coming into the P&L.

Now specifically, the the fourth quarter, third and fourth quarter, we saw a large amount of renewals happening, especially because the new regulatory regime was kicking in from 1st of April. We encouraged also these customers to do roll over, top-ups, etc.

Most of the loans, as you know that, we follow our rebate structure, you know. A lot of these loans, because of their ability to roll over, are standing at a lower yield structure currently.

Probably they will increase to migrate to a higher levels. That is a important factor which have also resulted in a yield yield.

Then, as MD sir said, some reductions we have done in in the first quarter. Then probably lastly,

How much would have the reduction been?

Some of this has taken place of the increased gold prices in the fourth quarter. Those incomes are not there in the first quarter.

Go on, please. No, no,

I was just saying that how much have the reductions been? Another related question is that if you can give the yields for June, considering that all of April and half of May was at 20% yield, if you can help us with the yields in the month of June, that will be very helpful.

Also,

we don't have any bifurcation as for June and all. We need to understand what led to this.

These are our reasons why leads to it. We don't have an exact breakup because of this or what happened in June, etc., for the interest income.

Sure. The second question is on your cost of borrowing.

How much more do you think it can increase from here or will it settle here? It's up about 7 bps quarter-on-quarter.

No.

I'm not expecting any reductions in cost of borrowing. It will mostly remain at these levels.

Depending upon RBI policies, it can go up. It all depends on how RBI is going to look at revising the benchmark rates.

Understood. Maybe another 5, 7 bps, 10 bps?

Any ballpark number whatever

Doesn't matter much in a business where you are generating a 5%-plus RoA.

Of course. Thanks a lot for all those answers.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening.

You said that there is no interest difference between a customer paying quarterly or paying semi-annually or paying annually, and you said that pricing will vary across schemes. What do you mean by schemes, and what is the pricing range difference across schemes?

On a per-month basis or on an annual basis, what are the different lending rates or structures that we're offering, and what is the price range right now through the branches, yeah?

Many of these things which you asked is there in our website, but I don't want to go into the granular details of how we collect it on a public forum like this, I think that is what I

just want clarification, sir. Whether a customer will pay you quarterly, semi-annually, or maybe annually also interest, but the principal payment comes at the end of the term of the loan, right?

The term of the loan remains 12 months.

We have 12 months loan, we have 9

months loan,

we have 3 months loan, we have monthly interest loans also.

EMI also.

EMIs also. EMI loans also.

But

Were these recently introduced, or they were always there?

All these things were introduced from 1st of April. 1st of 1st of

April. 1st of

April, no? Okay.

Yeah. Just lastly, just to focus back on volume growth, because maybe the gold prices are stable and maybe I can see that there's a good pickup in customer acquisition, old customer reactivation.

How are you driving your branches to acquire more customers, retain old customers, because I'm sure there will be a lot of pressure on competitors also to take over your customer? How are we driving our branches to ensure that we get good volume growth in a year when the gold prices could be largely stable?

Most of these are internal strategies. We have strategies to retain our customers, we have strategies to get customers, etc.

Again, we'll have to only demonstrate that in our performance, and I'm sure going forward also. See, you saw the gold price coming down, and still the AUM going up.

It is not a function of the gold price that the gold business is growing. The business is growing because there is need for funding.

That is something which I have been telling for the last several quarters, but people sometimes refuse to understand that. It is not that just because I have a high gold price, I am going to borrow big money.

I will borrow only if I feel that I can repay it, otherwise he'll sell it off. Instead of selling, if he's borrowing means, he is wanting to repay.

We have our strategies for all these things, all these competitions, etc., and I'm sure in the next quarters you'll see good growth in AUMs also.

Got it. Thank you so much, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, first question is on LTV.

What is our LTV as of June including accrued interest?

It will be around 65 or 66%.

66%,

166. 66%.

This includes accrued interest also, right?

Yes.

Okay. Second is what gives you confidence that our yields will be stabilizing at 18%, because in one quarter, we have seen 300 basis point decline in yields, and I believe that in one quarter the entire book would not have come for renewal.

The large part of the book, say 40, 50% of the book, will still come for renewal in coming quarters. What gives you confidence that it will stabilize at 18% only when the old book, which is at let us say 22%, will come for renewal?

That is one. What is the incremental yields in quarter one when we have disbursed the loans?

What is the incremental yields on those loans?

I think, as I said, generally the yield will be 18%, 18.5%. Incremental yields are a basket of yields.

We have higher yield portions, we have lower yield, etc. What gives me confidence is just my experience in the last 35 years in this company with gold loan.

It gives me the experience to say what will happen, what will be the things, etc. That's what I should be referring to here.

Nidhesh, fourth quarter, as I said earlier, there have been a very large amount of renewals. Now, one need not be too much concerned about in the new scenario, because we are rolling out mostly the shorter-end schemes.

Suppose, because it's a shorter end, we can always reprice at a shorter intervals. That flexibility we having, and based on that, we are fairly looking at a yield range of 8 18% to 18.5%.

Sure, sir. If you can share the data on incremental yields on gold loans for quarter one, that would be helpful.

The yields this quarter was 17.93%, last quarter 19.56%, previous to that 20.76%, previous to that 20.16%.

The current yield structure on gold loan schemes, as MD sir said, it is there in the website. We have n number of products and the pricing for that.

Sure. Sure, sir.

The last question is what percent of disbursement are happening at 85% LTV? Ballpark number?

Very low, maybe 5% or so.

4 to 5%. 4%.

4%. See, again, the answer is the same.

Everybody just doesn't borrow just because the price is there. They'll borrow only to the extent of what they feel they'll be able to repay.

That is what people borrow. Otherwise, they will all go and sell this gold.

It is better to sell the gold than take 75 or 70 or 85. So, 85, your answer, 85 is just started, maybe 3, 4%.

3%, yeah.

Sure, sir. Sure.

Thank you, sir. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions.

I'm relatively new to the company, sir, but I'm just trying to understand. In the last 20 years, the mix of loans in South region has come down from 84% to almost 50% now.

Where do you look at this going in the next 5 to 10 years? If I can also get your views on, do you think that the penetration rates of gold loans in Southern India is high, and hence there is a need to shift to North, or East, or West, or any other part outside of South?

Or is it just a function of getting more business in other regions? Just wanted your thoughts around that, sir.

I think I answered that question earlier also saying that the concept of gold loan was there much earlier than in North India, or people were aware of gold loan and people started using gold loan as a product maybe a few decades corporatized gold loans maybe much earlier. That is why there is a head start in South India.

North, East, and West is definitely catching up. Again, the credit should go to Muthoot for marketing the concept of gold loan in other than South.

We were the pioneers in this. We were the people who introduced the gold loan as a business loan proposition to North India.

Today, North India is also having a lot of business. There is potential there.

South India is only 1/4th of India. 3/4th is North, East, and West, there is always potential there.

Whether we will stop opening branches in South India? No, because South India still has a lot of gold loan potential, and there is scope for more people.

North India definitely it is less penetrated. It needs little more concept selling also in newer places.

When concept selling also happens much better, North, East, and West will also start doing better.

Got it, sir. Thanks for that.

Is it fair to say that in next 5 to 10 years, there's some degree of possibility that the 50% South mix goes down to maybe 40% or even lower?

How does this 50% and 60% It's a simple matter of See,

North, East, and West is a larger geography, South is

a 1/4th. 1/4th.

It's only 1/4th. It is not that South absolute loan amount has come down, loan amount has grown, but North, East, and West has grown larger.

Again,

it's a concept. When people start accepting gold loan as a concept, it will all pick up in North India also.

Got it. Thanks.

My second question is what is something on regulations or competitions that keeps you the most worried about business? To your point, banks have always been there and you've been competing with them for many decades now, but what are top one or two things top of your mind which keeps you worried about the business?

There is no single thing, etc., keeps worried. It is just that we need to do better and better.

We need to be one step ahead of everybody, competition. More than being one step ahead, we need to continue to get the customers trust.

This is a trust business. We should continue to get the trust of the customers, then everything else is passé.

Everything else is simple then.

Got it. Thank you so much.

Those were all my questions.

Thank you for taking my questions. A couple of data point questions.

If you could provide us the loan mix by ticket size as well as the auction number for the quarter. My second question is on your branch addition plans.

I see that you have added about 60 branches in the first quarter at the standalone level. If you could just lay out your branch addition plans for the standalone business for the full year as well as for Muthoot Money.

Those are my questions.

Ticket size above 3 lakhs is 38%, 1 lakh to 3 lakh is 35%.

The branches we opened 85 branches. Probably in this year, we should be opening another 500 to 600 branches overall in the group.

Specifically for standalone, if you could tell us, sir?

Standalone is Muthoot Finance.

Yes, Muthoot Finance.

Maybe 200, 250 branches.

Understood. That's all from my side.

Thank you.

Hi. Thank you.

Very clearly, competitive conditions have become far more intense than you might have probably felt that way only a few months back, because the yields have come down, the architecture of the products is dramatically altered at our end, and all of that seems to suggest that the competitive conditions probably have been more intense than you might have budgeted. When I look at even just the last quarter numbers where we reported ₹3,400 crores of net profit, while our asset base has grown from the last quarter from ₹1,82,000 crores to ₹1,91,000 crores, but profits have come down by almost 16, 17%, and the profit of this quarter is equal to what we reported in December quarter at ₹2,825-odd crores.

Am I to understand that probably the current year overall is likely to be a bit of a wash out as far as our performance is, wash out in the sense of achieving any meaningful growth, not wash out in any other sense, but any meaningful growth in the bottom line in the current year looks unlikely, as I see it?

I think you have given the question and the answer also. Why do you need any answers from me then?

You said the question, you said the answer.

I want a confirmation whether I'm thinking correctly or not.

See, no, don't use the word wash out, you know. The company has made a profit of 2,500, which is almost like, 6% RoA.

How many companies in India is making that kind of RoAs? Still it is better.

I think, in the initial questions, we explained in detail, what led to that, comparative profit quarter-on-quarter. From last year, we have suddenly there is a increase of almost 25% on profits.

We explained to you what are the reasons which is leading to a, quarter-on-quarter decline, because last year was an extraordinary year and quarter. That explains this.

We also gave the reasons of, renewals, etc. happened in the last quarter.

Especially large amount of renewals has happened, which leads to, the, the loans almost remaining at a lower slabs for a major portion of the quarter and a shorter duration. Which is leading to a lower interest income.

I think, we are fairly those extraordinary or incomes are not going to be present in the current year. I think we are fairly comfortable with a, interest yield of around 18%, 18.5%, which can generate a good, decent RoA.

No, let me rectify myself. I used completely wrong word wash out, and I quickly corrected that wash out more in the sense of achieving growth.

Over 20 years that I've seen Muthoot Finance, and I've been observing it year after year, it has consistently produced a meaningful growth in the band of 15% to 20% over year after year over a 20-year period that I've seen. This current year probably looks to me that given the sharp drop in the yield that probably current year may not produce any meaningful growth in the bottom line.

In that sense of achieving any meaningful growth in the bottom line, I used that word, but I stand corrected. I didn't mean wash out in any other sense.

That absolute profits probably may not grow maybe by a single digit is what it looks like to me in the current year, which is below

See, Bharat, we don't give any profit guidance. What we generally give a guidance of AUM growth, because profits are secondary for us.

For us, loan growth is the primary factor, and we believe that profits will follow. We have given a guidance of 15%, because considering that last year we had a good growth.

We also expect some revision to happen after the half-yearly results. Let's review the growth numbers we achieve till September end, and then accordingly we can give a revised guidance if it is needed.

15% from June base, you are saying? From March numbers.

From March '26 to 15%. Roughly about ₹2,10,000 crores or higher?

I don't know all these figures, sir. No,

we had 1,50,000, 15% means it's almost like a 17,000, 18,000.

No, no. Our asset base was ₹1,82,000 crores as on March '26.

So, 15% will mean about ₹27,000 crores. I'm talking consolidated.

Okay. Anyway, 15% is 15%.

Which means we probably expense characteristic and cost of fund you clarified already. Therefore, the pattern probably in the quarters ahead will replicate based on the size of the business again, similar to what we've seen in June.

That will be fair assumption to make, right?

That's what I said. Now, we don't generally get into the profit guidance.

We give a growth guidance. Let's see how that is panning out.

All right. Thank you.

Good evening, sirs, and thank you for taking my question. Sir, as you would have seen all the participants who are there on the call today, for the last few quarters we were all just trying to understand what is really happening on the yields, how much is the recoveries in the interest income that we were reporting.

I think, last three quarters, four quarters, we were all struggling given the expansion in yields which we have explained already that there were recoveries and so explained there were renewals last quarter and which is why the loans are sitting at a lower rate given the rebate structure that you follow. Sir, again just a humble request from my side.

We are the largest gold loan company, almost a 1.25 trillion market cap. I think it's a fair ask when we ask you that what are the clean gold loan yields, which were there for the last two quarters, and what are the clean gold loan yields this quarter?

If we just articulate that for all of us, that will be very useful for everyone on the call.

I think yield is 17.93%.

This year, the yield is 17.93%, last quarter it was 19.56%, previous to that is 20.76%, previous to that is 20.16%. That's the yield.

This year the yield is 17.93%. This quarter.

Sir, all the numbers that you said just now, do they include the recoveries as well or are these clean gold loan yields without any recoveries?

It's all with recovery. What is recovery,

I didn't understand. Sir, recoveries from the NPA loans where you were able to recover the overdue interest.

A different concept. NPA recoveries happens, rollovers, when it happens, if it is at a higher slab, those recoveries happens.

More old recoveries happened last year.

ARC receipts, whatever is over and above that happens. Auction whatever has happened,

all those are included in the yield.

Top-up charges we collect, that also included. That also will come in.

Those kind of situations are not there in the first quarter. Additionally, we have also fine-tuned some of the rate structure in the light of the new regime.

To that extent, there could be some impact also.

Steady state we expect 18 to 85 18 to 18.5% yield. Steady state.

Got it, sir. Got it.

Sir, which is why, I am at least finding it a little difficult to understand that despite whatever recoveries we had over the last few quarters, how can yields decline by maybe 200 to 300 basis points in one one quarter?

What you need to understand is these are not a long-term fixed rate contracts. These are all short-term contracts.

There, it all depends on, and we are dealing with 100,000 customers a day. There, this loan cycles are very short and added to that, these kind of fluctuations impact the yield.

Now, as I said, profit is secondary for us, the loan growth is important, and how we take care of the customers. To that extent, we follow different policies at different points of time which will have an impact on the yield, but we believe that 18% yield is something maintainable.

Got it, Oommen sir. Then the last question that I had was just trying to understand whatever I have heard on this call until now, are we now acknowledging the high competitive intensity which is there?

I think, MD sir used few of the

Please,

can you repeat the question? There was a break in between.

Hello?

Hi, sir. Is it better now?

Yeah.

Now you can hear you. Just repeat the question, last question.

Yes, sir. All I was just trying to understand is, sir, whatever I have heard on this call, somewhere I think that we are now acknowledging the high competitive intensity which is there, and I think, last couple of quarters we've all been asking.

To that end, whatever changes you have done on the interest rate structure, are you planning to aggressively compete now? The only thing here is that I heard MD sir say that let's see who's the fittest to survive, let us wait for a few more quarters.

Just trying to understand, can we in the next two to three quarters get to a point where every gold loan lender in the country starts cutting rates on gold loans, and you'll remember that time between maybe December 2022 to June 2023, where for us also the yields had declined by about 350 basis points. Can we get to a point in the next couple of quarters if everyone starts competing aggressively?

Quite possible. There could be a question where everyone drops their rates, etc.

There's a certainly a possibility is there, but we have our benchmark, and even with this rates, we have been able to generate a growth this quarter of almost 6%, that is about ₹9,000 crores of growth.

Yes, sir. Thanks for that.

Sir, lastly, I think just data-keeping question. You had shared the mix of gold loans by ticket size.

My line was not good, if you could just repeat that for 1Q and 4Q and the auctions number, please.

Above 3 lakhs, it is

Hello?

Just give me a second. Yeah.

Sure, sir.

March '25, it is 38% above 3 lakhs and 1 lakh to 3 lakh is 35%. June

The number that you said now for March '26?

Sorry. Just a second.

June '26, I think above 3 lakhs is 60 69%. 1 lakh to 3 lakhs is 22%.

Sorry, earlier number I gave was wrong.

This was June '26, sir. What is March '26?

March '26, let me Uh March '26 is 51%. Above 3 lakhs is 51%, and 1 lakh to 3 lakh is 30%.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

The auctions number?

Negligible. This quarter.

No, it's very negligible, around ₹52 lakhs. Negligible.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

That's all from my side, sir. Thank you so much for answering all my questions, and I wish you and the team Muthoot Finance all the very best.

Thank you.

Thank you well-wishers and investors for attending the call today on a Saturday evening. Wish you all the best, and from our side, we will ensure that the company runs well, the company makes adequate business, company makes adequate profit, and all stakeholders are kept happy.

That is our job, and we will continue to do that probably certainly with blessings of everybody, including you, the analysts, etc., who generally give us good guidance and good informations also. We appreciate that, and goodbye from the management team, and good day to all of you.