Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd.

Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd.

976.00
INR
-24.00
(-2.40%)
26.03EPS
43.83P/E
742.86BMarket Cap

Q2 FY2027 · Earnings Call TranscriptOctober 22, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited Q2 and H1 FY27 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing * then 0 on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited.

Thank you and over to you.

Prayesh Jain

Thank you, Steve. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of Motilal Oswal, I welcome you all to the Nippon Life India Asset Management 2Q FY27 earnings conference call. We have along with us Mr.

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

Just to inform, Mr. Sundeep would be there on the call until 4:40 PM, post which the other senior members of the management will take the Q&A.

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

Over to you, sir.

Sundeep Sikka

Thanks, Prayesh. Good afternoon and welcome to our Q2 FY27 earnings conference call.

We have with us President and Deputy CEO, Saugata Chatterjee; CFO, Parag Joglekar; Deputy CFO, Amol Bilagi; Chief Digital Officer, Arpan Saharia; CEO of our AIF subsidiary, Ashwin Duggall; Matsui-san, the nominee of Nippon Life; and Head of our Alternate, Andrew Holland. I would first 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 our 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 in H1 FY27 on overall and equity AUM. We also had the highest increase in overall AUM market share as well as equity AUM market share amongst the top 10 AMCs in H1 FY27.

Our market share stood at 9.02%, relatively flat quarter-on-quarter. Importantly, both equity net market share and SIP market share remained well above our equity market share, both in high single digits.

Moving to our financial performance, NAM India achieved its highest ever quarterly operating profit of INR 5.23 billion, a growth of 25% year-on-year. Also, happy to share, the board of directors have declared an interim dividend of INR 9.50 per share along with Q2 FY27 results.

Now, I would like to hand over the call to Parag for further details on industry trends and our performance.

Parag Joglekar

Thank you, Sundeep. Let me start off with the markets.

Equity market in Q2 FY27 witnessed a correction from prior quarter levels. The Nifty was down 5% quarter-on-quarter.

The Nifty Midcap Index was down 4% quarter-on-quarter, while the Nifty Smallcap Index was relatively flat quarter-on-quarter. The repo rate was flat quarter-on-quarter at 5.25%, while the 10-year G-sec yield increased by 44 basis quarter-on-quarter to 7.19%.

Gold prices were flat, up 2.5%, while silver prices were down 1% quarter-on-quarter. Now moving to industry AUM and flows.

Industry quarterly average AUM grew by 13% year-on-year and 5% quarter-on-quarter in Q2 FY27 to INR 87.2 trillion. The share of equity in overall AUM increased by 1% quarter-on-quarter, ending at 58.2% for Q2 FY27.

The equity, ex of index and arbitrage, witnessed a gross inflow of INR 2.69 trillion, higher by 9% quarter-on-quarter, and a net inflow of INR 1.08 trillion, lower by 5% quarter-on-quarter. Categories with the highest inflows were small cap, mid cap, and flexi cap funds.

The fixed income category witnessed a net outflow of INR 59 billion in the quarter after an inflow in the previous quarter. The ETF category had a net inflow of INR 367 billion, higher on quarter-on-quarter basis.

Quarter-end unique investors in the mutual fund industry increased 11% year-on-year to 63.1 million. Moving on to SIP, industry SIP flows for the quarter stood at INR 967 billion, up 12% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter.

Monthly SIP flows in September 2026 stood at INR 325 billion, another all-time high. Contributing SIP folios for September 2026 increased 9% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter to 100.6 million.

Now moving to our business performance, we closed the quarter with total asset under management of INR 8.68 trillion. This includes mutual fund, managed accounts, offshore fund, and GIFT City.

Our mutual fund quarterly average AUM grew 19.9% year-on-year and 4.7% quarter-on-quarter to reach INR 7.87 trillion. We were the fastest-growing AMC in the top 10 in H1 FY27 on overall and equity AUM and had the highest increase in overall and the equity quarterly average AUM market share among the top 10 AMCs in H1 FY27.

I would like now to share a few key highlights for the quarter. Our mutual fund market share increased 51 basis year-on-year to 9.02%.

On quarter-on-quarter basis, it was relatively flat. Our equity market share increased 27 basis year-on-year and 2 basis quarter-on-quarter to 7.4%.

We achieved a high single-digit net share market share in equity segment, ex of index and arbitrage. We continued to have the largest investor base in the mutual fund industry with 24.3 million unique investors.

We are humbled to have over one in three mutual fund investors invest with us. During the quarter, we also completed the NFO of the Nippon India Income Plus Arbitrage Omni Fund of Fund, raising INR 1.8 billion.

I would also like to touch upon some of the important aspect of our systematic book. Our monthly systematic book rose by 2% year-on-year to INR 37 billion for September 2026.

This resulted and in an annualized systematic book of INR 445 billion. Excluding STP, SIP book growth was 9% year-on-year.

SIP market share stood at 9.84% for September 2026, similar to June 2026. Moving on briefly to the ETF segment, we continued to be one of the largest ETF players with AUM of INR 2.49 trillion and a market share of 21.12%, which increased by 135 basis year-on-year.

Our share of industry ETF folios and volumes remains strong at around 45%. Our ETF average daily volume across key funds remain far higher than the rest of the industry.

For gold and silver ETFs, combined closing AUM for NIMF was INR 82 billion, up 6.6% quarter-on-quarter. In quarterly average AUM terms, our gold and silver ETFs represent 32% of the ETF AUM and 12% of the MF AUM.

Moving on to our digital franchise, digital purchase transaction and new SIP registration rose to 9 million in H1 FY27, up 15% year-on-year. Digital business contributed 78% of the total new purchase transaction in H1 FY27.

NIMF digital business continues to strengthen its focus on long-term investor behavior, driving initiatives to scale business and deepen SIP adoption while reinforcing confidence in the discipline investing and market volatility. Now, I would like to briefly update you on the subsidiary and the GIFT City.

Starting off with AIF, under Nippon India AIF, we offer Category II and Category III AIF and have raised cumulative commitment of INR 99.8 billion across various schemes, up 14% year-on-year. In Q2 FY27, we raised INR 4 billion of commitment across various asset class.

Fundraising is currently underway for our listed equity fund, private credit fund, and direct VC fund. During Q2 FY27, we launched our second SMID category fund, Undiscovered India Opportunity Fund II.

Nippon India Credit Opportunity Fund, NCOF II, with the third capital call in Q2 FY27, is drawdown to the extent of 55%. On offshore fund, our managed AUM stood at INR 135 billion, while our GIFT City AUM stood at USD 45 million.

Now on to our financial performance, for Q2 FY27, revenue stood at INR 7.96 billion, up 21% year-on-year and 4% quarter-on-quarter. Operating expenses stood at INR 2.72 billion, up 14% year-on-year and flat quarter-on-quarter.

Operating profit stood at INR 5.23 billion, up 25% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter. Profit after tax stood at INR 3.24 billion, down both YoY and QoQ.

However, this is mainly related to the exceptional item, which I will speak about shortly. For H1 FY27, operating profit grew by 28% year-on-year, profit after tax grew by 12% year-on-year.

Further, the board board of directors has declared an interim dividend of INR 9.5 per share along with the Q2 FY27 results. Lastly, I would like to speak about the exceptional item recognized in the financial.

During the during the quarter, SEBI accorded its in-principle acceptance of the settlement applications filed by the company and its certain officials in respect of an ongoing regulatory matter relating to the past investment made by certain NIMF schemes in Yes Bank AT1 bonds. This relates to the show cause notice received by the company from SEBI dated August 30th August 2024 and subsequent settlement proceedings.

Considering the time and the cost and uncertainty uncertainty that is potentially associated with the generally prolonged legal proceeding, the board has decided to pursue the settlement process in the best interest of the company since it brings the matter to quietus, which in turn allows the management to remain focused on its core business. As a part of agreed terms settlement terms, an amount of INR 96.76 crore has been paid, comprising of INR 89.08 crore as a reversal of management fee earned by the company over the said investment, including interest, and INR 7.68 crore as a regulatory cost in respect of the company and certain company officials.

The settlement amount of INR 96.76 crore has been fully paid and recognized in the financial result for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2026, as an exceptional item. However, further communication from SEBI is awaited.

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

Operator

Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press * and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press * and 2.

Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

The first question comes from the line of Shreyas with Nomura. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you so much for the opportunity. First question was on yields.

We have seen a slight deterioration in yields as compared to last quarter, while other AMCs and peers have seen quarter-on-quarter increase in yields. Can you explain why is this so?

Amol Bilagi

Yeah. Hi Shreyas, Amol here.

The compression in yield was mainly on account of the increase in the equity AUM and due to telescopic pricing. That was the really reason for that.

Sure. What we have seen in peers is that the equity mix has changed and hence the equity yields have improved.

In that relation, the mix in equity AUM, has it changed or has it been similar?

Amol Bilagi

If you look at our equity growth, that has been the highest in the industry, and that's why you see the compression in the yield, basically.

Sure, understood. Can you throw some light on the AT1 bond case and what exactly it was?

That was the second question.

Parag Joglekar

No, Shreyas, Parag here. I think I have covered in my opening remarks what the details of the case and the settlement which we have paid.

We don't have anything to add at this point further on that.

What was the non-compliance that SEBI alleged regarding certain provisions of securities law, if you can explain that a little bit, please?

Parag Joglekar

Shreyas, there is nothing to add on that. At appropriate point, we may come back and disclose on the sheet, but currently, we have covered in the financial and the opening remarks, whatever we have to submit currently.

Sure. My third question was on SIFs.

How has been the process that we are talking? When we can see SIFs being launched by the company, because peers have said and we have seen in the industry as well that it has been a very important product and has been garnering a lot of flows.

What's the strategy there?

Saugata Chatterjee

Hi, Shreyas. Saugata this side.

Of course, as we have spoken in the past, we definitely have started working at the drawing board as to what will be our SIF launch strategy. We are, of course, awaiting for the SIF clearance to come in from SEBI.

Once we get that, of course, we'll be in the market to launch our ideas. As we have also spoken, we have Andrew Holland and team who have been working on this space for the last now one year.

This particular category requires experience. We feel that we have enough experience in the system to exhibit the two SIF strategies in the market.

At the right time, we will come and, of course, explain and launch our ideas.

Sure, thank you so much. Those were my questions.

Saugata Chatterjee

Thank you.

Parag Joglekar

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press * and 1.

The next question comes from the line of Sanil with DAM Capital. Please go ahead.

[unclear] Sir,

Operator

we cannot hear you. There's a lot of disturbance coming from your line.

Hello, is it better now?

Operator

Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you for the opportunity.

I just wanted to ask again on the yields part. Sir, if we look at the yields for other AMCs as well, while they have also seen a mixed improvement, the decline over here looks sharp, because this quarter, we also have an additional day.

Adjusted for that, the yields decline looks sharp. Now, is it just because of telescoping or maybe because of the commission to distributors that may not have been passed on because of the regulatory change?

If you can throw some highlight there, because the drop seems a little high if we compare.

Parag Joglekar

No, sir. Sanil, Parag here.

Just to tell you that our growth in the equity AUM is one of the highest in the industry, and it is purely on the telescopic pricing. Any changes due to regulatory change has already happened in the first quarter, there is nothing on that in this quarter.

This is purely due to the growth of our AUM and the flows which we are garnering, which have resulted due to telescopic pricing in lower equity yields. Oh,

okay. Thank you, sir.

Secondly, if you see the current market trends, a lot of our flows are coming in the small cap and the flexi cap and the mid cap kind of schemes. Recently, a lot of correction has happened in the small cap recently.

A lot of MTF book has seen some drawdown over here. How are we seeing investor thought process over here, because the flows in this category, if this, let's say, see a sharp decline or redemption, what kind of investor psyche we are seeing over here?

If this correction continues, then what are the mitigants do we have, because these are technically our one of the biggest schemes. How do we look at this category going ahead?

Saugata Chatterjee

Okay. Sanil, if you typically see the Nippon India Mutual Fund flows, we have had flows in our traditional funds like multicap, large cap, mid cap, small cap, and our hybrid funds.

The industry flows in small cap and flexi cap may be higher, but as you know that we have stopped taking any lump sum flows in our small cap fund for the last three years. What is happening is the money flow which is coming to us is more dispersed, coming into more multicap and large cap opportunities.

Yes, market volatility does impact the investor sentiment. We are seeing now HNI investors slowly taking exits from large caps.

Till about last month, the large cap category had seen some negative net sales, though our fund has not seen any negative net sales, but at an industry level, the net sales has been negative. We have to wait and watch as we progress from here if the downside is going to be sharper from here on, then maybe some of the fund houses who have got flows in small cap and the other sector funds, etc., might see some higher redemption.

From our perspective, we have a very, very strong SIP book, which actually protects us in these circumstances, as we know that we have almost close to INR 3,200 crore of inflows coming in every month, which is more structural in nature, more fragmented, coming from deeper part of India. We definitely have more protection around net sales across our equity funds.

Sir. Thank you.

This was very helpful. Just lastly, if I may ask, in this current situation, what is the communication do you have to the distributor network you have, because what's the communication right now to all the distributors, what strategies are you using or anything if you can throw some light on that?

Saugata Chatterjee

As I mentioned, for the last now one year we have been propagating hybrid funds. We have been speaking about multi-asset allocation products.

We have been speaking about our again large cap, multicap, and more broad-based strategies. We are also bringing in a lot of fixed income focus into our distributors, as we all know this industry is very lowly penetrated when it comes to fixed income funds, typically in the retail and HNI space.

We as a fund house have taken the lead much earlier, and the asset diversification along with lesser risk-oriented products is what we are trying to communicate. We do a lot of activities and communication with our distributors and investors around why should the SIPs not stop in these markets, because the SIPs become more fragile if the long-term return starts becoming negative.

We are doing a lot of proactive stuff digitally as well as face-to-face with our distributors to arrest these investor behavior and volatility in the flows.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

This was really helpful. Thank you for answering the questions and all the best for your future quarters.

Ahead quarters.

Saugata Chatterjee

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Madhukar Ladha with J.P.

Morgan. Please go ahead.

Madhukar Ladha

Hi. Good evening.

Thank you for taking my questions. First, I'm not sure whether you gave this out or not.

Can you give me the asset class-wise yield that you've got? Second, can you comment on how your net inflow market share is trending?

Maybe you can give a comparison between 1Q and 2Q and whether you're seeing an improvement, decline, and some sense of there. Third, I noticed that in the equity mix, we've seen a little dip in the direct share.

What is really driving that? Is there anything that we should read into it?

Those would be my three questions. Thanks.

Amol Bilagi

Hi Madhukar, Amol here. On the yield part, the equity yield is 52 basis points, ex of arbitrage; debt is 25 basis points; liquid is 12 basis points; and ETF is 25 basis points.

On the net inflow market share, Saugata, would you like to take it?

Saugata Chatterjee

Yeah. Hi, Madhukar.

With regard to the flows, if you compare Q1 and Q2, we are still in the higher single digit basically touching around 10%. That's the net flows when it comes to equity.

There hasn't been any major deviation from a flow point of view. The color of the money which is coming to us, as I mentioned, is coming into more diversified funds as well as hybrids, which is where we would like the investors to participate and not get into NFOs and smaller cap products which are there in the market.

We continue to be in that camp and that's probably helping us to maintain our net sales growth. When it comes to ratio of direct versus regular, maybe these are temporary quarterly phenomena, nothing to read into those numbers.

For us it is flows which come into our funds. Typically HNIs try to exit when there are market volatility, it might skew the percentile of direct AUM in certain quarters.

Amol Bilagi

Madhukar, just to add on the yield part, the blended yield stood at 37 basis points.

Madhukar Ladha

Right. Just on the yields, can you split the equity yield between arbitrage and the balance, like equity and hybrid funds, that part?

Amol Bilagi

No, there we don't provide that kind of breakup, Madhukar.

Saugata Chatterjee

We are not very significant in arbitrage. We don't focus on that category.

Madhukar Ladha

Okay. Understood.

Got it. Yeah.

Operator

Thank you.

Madhukar Ladha

Thanks. That'll be all.

Thanks. Bye.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Mayank with Emkay Global. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

I have two questions. First is on the employee costs.

Employee expenses have been largely flat on a sequential basis. Just wanted to understand how should we look at it from the full-year point of view and going forward maybe over the medium term.

Secondly, my question is on the ETFs. Our ETF market share has been largely stable sequentially.

However, we have seen some contraction in the volumes market share. If you could just help us with some of your comments on the same.

Yeah.

Saugata Chatterjee

Sure. I'll take the ETF part first.

I think if you see the entire ETF market space in the last one year, if you dissect last one year into two halves, first six months, because of the entire commodity momentum in the commodity ETFs, the flows were very, very strong. In the last six months, these flows have sort of slowed down on the commodity side and hence the volumes look to be lesser.

Of course, equity market being volatile, the inflows into the equity funds have sort of slowed down. When it comes to us as an asset management company, the net flows into our ETF products continues to be strong, rather our net flows are higher than our market share.

That is how we are pegged in the system. The good part is the reason why our volumes are higher than competition and in industry we stand out is because of, like we have been historically talking about, we believe in volumes.

We have enough volumes in the exchange because of the strong retail base which we have built in all our equity ETF products. Our tracking errors are very, very competitive, and we have the least impact cost when it comes to ETFs.

Investors do prefer us as a go-to category as well as the multiple options which we provide to the investors. From ETF standpoint, we continue to remain relevant in the market.

Amol Bilagi

Actually, Mayank, on the employee cost front, probably the employee cost should remain in the similar range except for the new hires that we may do to strengthen our teams and also it depends on training and investments on that front. As guided in the quarter one, on the overall cost front, we continue to maintain our guidance of 18% to 20% growth over the next two operating quarters.

Sundeep Sikka

I'll just like to add more on this while on the mutual fund side AMC, it will be almost flat. AIF business, when you just look at the consolidated, that is where we plan to expand.

I think some new senior team members have joined and we are in the process of adding more professionals. You may see incremental cost in our AIF subsidiary.

Over the next six quarters.

Sundeep Sikka

Over next three to six quarters.

Got it, sir. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Prayesh Jain with Motilal Oswal.

Please go ahead.

Prayesh Jain

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, firstly, while this is a kind of a small decline, very small decline, but on a unique investors count as well as a total folios, we have seen marginal declines in this quarter sequentially. Anything to read into it?

Any challenges that you're looking, especially towards exit rate of the quarter where we have also seen some bit of fund performance kind of weakening? Have we faced any challenges towards the end of the quarter in terms of client addition as well as flows in any sense?

Saugata Chatterjee

No, I think see, a good observation. See, what is happening is if you see the market, because of the volatility in the market, the investor flows into the mutual fund industry has also started slowing down.

Okay? The investor growth has been flattish.

That's what is also reflective in the SIP industry AUM book as well as the SIP inflows are also sort of flattening. When it comes to us, we have not launched any NFOs also in the last several quarters.

NFOs do have a tendency to bring in new investors. We stay away from that.

Second part is what we measure. We measure ourselves on the controllables.

Our number of SIP folio growth continues to be positive, as well as our total investor acquisition is also positive. Some bit of moderation can happen because of market dynamics, but we are not looking at that as a major concern area, because we still feel that there's a lot of opportunity for investor growth.

Yes, there is a slowdown in industry, for sure.

Prayesh Jain

Got that. Secondly, sir, while we attributed slowdown in the industry, have you seen any divergent trends between a direct customer and an assisted customer and wherein direct channel checks what we've done is kind of indicating that direct customer seems to be churning far more than the advised customers?

Are you seeing that trend changing, and what would be your thought on the new PMS product of mutual funds that has been allowed by SEBI?

Saugata Chatterjee

See, the direct investor and the HNI investor, of course, like I mentioned earlier also, HNI investors do tend to have short cycles, and when it comes to volatility and one-year, two-year performance not reflecting in their portfolios. As you have seen, there has been a sort of a migration of investors to SIF.

There has been some migration of investors into alternate assets, as well as the direct bond and other categories where definitely investors are getting positive returns. Of course, in any market cycle, there will be investor behavior which can change.

We are also experiencing that behavior. Sir,

Sundeep Sikka

I think regarding this MF-only PMS, I think it's a very good new initiative by the regulator. It will help in expanding the market on ground thereon.

Also it gets more and more advisors who've been advising, gives them a formal route to help their investors to invest. While it is very early to comment on it how things will play out, but since this is supposed to invest in mutual fund schemes, I think at Nippon, we believe, I think because of the long-term track record of the schemes which we have, I think we will benefit from that.

Even more, because of our strong position in ETF, a lot of this money indirectly can flow into us. Like I said, we need to evaluate how investors respond to it.

I think it will be good for the industry and we also believe it will be good for established mutual funds and especially mutual funds which are very established in ETFs.

Prayesh Jain

Got that. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mohit Mangal with Centrum Broking.

Please go ahead.

Mohit Mangal

Yeah. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity.

My first question is on employee expenses. I was looking at your press release and it said that the ESOP expenses was about 16-odd crore for H1, and you've guided for about 60 to 80 crore for the entire year.

Should we assume that your ESOP expenses will be higher for H2?

Amol Bilagi

Sorry, when you referred to 60 to 60 to 60 crore that we mentioned, that was for the new ESOPs granted that expense would come over the period of four years. What we have mentioned the financial results is basically about only the new ESOP grants.

If you look at the overall ESOP expense, for the quarter, it was around 14.55 crore, and for the half year, it was around 28 crore. Oh,

Mohit Mangal

okay. Actually, I was looking at your press release of slide 12.

Basically, it said that your ESOP expenses was about 15.93 crore for the half year ended 30th September, the non-cash component of the employee benefit expenses. Once.

Amol Bilagi

Okay. For the year for the year, the expense is expected to be about around 58 crore for the entire year.

Mohit Mangal

Okay. For the first half, it was 28-odd crore, right?

Amol Bilagi

28, yeah.

Mohit Mangal

Understood. That's helpful.

Second is basically on the offshore business. We understand that due to a lot of macroeconomic issues, the AUM has kind of declined.

Are we doing something wherein we can increase the growth, any particular strategy towards that? Ashwin, Andrew is there.

Yeah.

Saugata Chatterjee

No, I think the reasons for offshore AUM overall has been that owing to the rupee-INR equations, rupee depreciation over the last one year or so, okay, there has been decline in flows from FIIs into India, okay? What we have seen, though, is that we are seeing money come in real assets, but I think just the global macros have to improve and, once we see the West Asian crisis possibly nearing some resolution, you could see the rupee coming back strongly.

That I think that is one of the main reasons that we are seeing both institutional as well as retail flows from overseas delayed. We continue to engage with important investors and placement agents overseas.

That continuous engagement is happening.

Mohit Mangal

Okay. Any particular newer schemes that you will launch in the next three to six months?

Saugata Chatterjee

You're talking about offshore or onshore?

Mohit Mangal

Offshore.

Saugata Chatterjee

Yes, we're looking at a couple of ideas, maybe feeders into one or two or into GIFT into our master fund in India. There is also possibly a chance of a strategy of outbound funds with one of our strategic partners.

At formative stage right now, we'd not be able to really share too many details about it.

Mohit Mangal

Understood. Not a problem.

Lastly, in terms of the yield, you said that equity yield has been around 52-odd bps, excluding arbitrage. If I look that in Q1, that number was around 54 bps.

Just wanted to know that two bps was primarily on account of just telescopic pricing or there's another element to that as well?

Amol Bilagi

Parag here. It is mainly on telescopic pricing and the new flows which keep on coming we are garnering.

That is the only reason. Obviously, there will be share between the various schemes across the equity, there may be some shifts.

Otherwise, there is nothing other than that.

Mohit Mangal

Understood. That's very helpful.

Thanks and wish you all the best.

Amol Bilagi

Thank you.

Saugata Chatterjee

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Meghna Luthra with InCred Equities.

Please go ahead.

Meghna Luthra

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

I just had a few questions. One around gold ETFs, I wanted to just understand what proportion of our SIP comes from gold FoF?

No,

Saugata Chatterjee

Meghna, we don't share scheme-level SIP book. This will be a small portion of our SIP book, because mostly it is equity-oriented.

Meghna Luthra

Got it. This comes in context of the recent restrictions on flow on FoF funds.

Do we see any impact, and if yes, what kind of an impact are we assessing on this front?

Saugata Chatterjee

Actually, if you just go back to three months back, the entire industry had stopped taking lump sum and large ticket flows into commodity ETFs. It did not impact the flows at all, because in ETFs, there is a buying and selling which happens.

Even if there are investors who are coming in to build a gold or a silver portfolio, there's always a counterparty to create a market. The net growth in gold tonnage is very, very insignificant.

When it comes to current things which we have undertaken in the fund of fund, it doesn't impact the ETF business, because ETF still continues to be open for investors to come in and do their buying and selling. Actually, ETF is more prominent when it comes to gold and silver rather than the fund of fund.

There, the buying and selling continues irrespective of flows being restricted in funds.

Meghna Luthra

Got it. Thank you.

I just wanted to understand regarding the expense of the one-time exceptional item on AT1 bonds, we did not have any sort of provisions for it, right?

Parag Joglekar

We booked that as an expense in the current quarter.

Meghna Luthra

Got it. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Abhijeet with Kotak Securities.

Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks. Good evening, everyone.

My first question is, I wanted to clarify the point on opex. If I heard it right, you mentioned 18% to 20% growth for the full-year opex.

Just a clarification there, given how we are heading into the current quarter as well in terms of the top-line momentum, just wanted to clarify you're still kind of sticking to that guidance of 18% to 20% growth. Second question was on the flows, but more broadly for the industry and then specifically for Nippon.

2Q flows were weaker than the first quarter. If you could highlight across all the channels, where have you seen flow pressure to be maximum for Nippon specifically?

Third question is on AT1, just wanted to again check what was really the trigger that we had to take this particular action in the current quarter? Was it regulatory-driven?

Was it board discretion, if you can provide any color on that?

Saugata Chatterjee

Yeah. Coming to the first part, from the flows point of view, as I mentioned, between the two quarters, our net flows has been more or less similar.

What's happening in the industry, if you're tracking the entire industry flows on the equity side, the pegging order of the fund houses are changing every quarter. There are a few new fund houses who have come in and started garnering assets because of the new strategies they have launched in the market.

Some of the older fund houses have started losing market share there. It's a very interesting trend which we are seeing in the marketplace.

Fund houses like us who have been trying to be in the traditional space, advocating large cap, mid cap, multicap, the multi-asset strategies, we continue to get flows which are normal. We are not getting any abnormal flows, and we are happy with that.

There are AMCs who are getting flows in certain categories because of the, as I mentioned, either it's a new fund or some existing fund has been repositioned. That's how the trend line is shifting, and we are clear that we will continue to do what we think is the right from an investor's standpoint, and we'll continue to talk about our traditional products.

Parag Joglekar

Abhijeet, on the expense side, I think so we have been mentioning that we will keep on investing for long-term, and that thought process remains. Obviously, we are watchful on the movement, market cycles, and all.

The idea is that it is important to keep on investing on technology, brand, on digital, on people, on various segment of business. That is critical and we will keep on doing it, but we will be mindful of the overall environment in the market.

What was your third question, Abhijeet? I just missed it.

On the AT1, sir, what triggered the provision this quarter?

Parag Joglekar

Abhijeet, we got the in-principle settlement from SEBI, and that is why we paid the amount and made the necessary provision, as we mentioned in our opening remarks.

Understood, sir. Just one follow-up for Chatterjee sir on the first point.

Like if you can give some color on whether Nippon, compared to rest of the like large listed space, in terms of the market share, flow market share, from the the digital the self-directed channel, if it's like higher than the the broader peer set or is it lower, which is kind of leading into more stable flow behavior?

Saugata Chatterjee

Yeah. I think that part of your question I could not answer.

The flows which are coming to us, the fintech flows continue to be steady. We, being more of a retail fund house, we continue to get a higher share from our MFDs.

Both the digital channel and the MFDs continue to be the contribution higher from these two channels. Then we have the other channels contributing to our flows.

Because these two channels are more retail-oriented, we haven't seen any sort of large impact when it comes to flows, which I think is slightly different from the other AMCs' behavior of inflows.

All right. Thank you so much.

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Shobhit Sharma with Elara Securities.

Please go ahead.

Shobhit Sharma

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, just to continue on the earlier participant's question on the unique customers, if I look at the incremental unique customer count or the market share on the incremental unique customers, I think it has been significantly lower than what it used to be in the previous 10 to 12 quarters. Any channel where we have seen kind of moderation in our counter share which is leading to this?

Secondly, is it right to assume that because our flagship schemes, both small cap and mid cap, has grown faster than the overall equity AUM growth, is actually leading into the yield dilution?

Saugata Chatterjee

I'll answer the first question and maybe Parag can take the other question. See, the investor count behavior, as I mentioned to the previous participant, NFOs, when they come in the market, still as an Indian investor, the ₹10 is an attraction, okay?

Whenever any NFOs which have been launched by the new AMCs who are coming in the industry, as well as some of the existing AMCs having launched some new ideas, that definitely attracts volumes both digitally as well as through channels. We definitely are away from that space, because in a market which is very volatile, we would not like investors to come in with an experience in funds which don't have a track record.

We stay away from that. Hence, maybe you are finding us flattening on the investor count growth.

Let me also say, which has also been communicated in the opening remarks, that we crossed the four four 40 million folio count in this quarter. So 40 million folio count and 2.5 crore unique investors pegs us at 37% of the total unique investors in the MF industry, which itself is a very large number, and that is incrementally growing for us.

Few lakhs here and there should not probably worry us, because we are definitely growing our investor base.

Parag Joglekar

Shobhit, the overall yield has been dropped mainly due to the yields on equity. With the growth of AUM and the new flows which we are getting, that has impacted the yield overall.

The mix between the various schemes across the equity, nothing specifically on the distributor or the investor side to read into it. It is generally a growth and the flows which are coming.

Shobhit Sharma

Just a small follow-up, Saugata. If you can give us some color on if there is an NFO launch which happens, which is the channel which actually helps in garnering most of the flows?

Because I believe you are pretty large on the fintech side and the MFD side. If you can give some color around that, that would be helpful.

Saugata Chatterjee

We have stopped launching NFOs, I can talk about the industry, because the behavior is similar. See, whenever any new idea is launched in the market, the retail comes in.

The retail comes in through the MFDs and the fintechs. These two channels are the go-to channels for any asset management company.

Then the remaining channels like banks and the direct investors or the wealth managers, they come in. It is definitely skewed towards the two retail channels.

See, today mutual funds are coming in from 300 locations in India. Getting investors from any part of India becomes convenient because the fintech reach is very large, and the MFD distribution network is also very, very strong.

These two are the go-to channels for any fund to be launched.

Shobhit Sharma

Understood. Thank you and all the best.

Saugata Chatterjee

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today.

I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Parag Joglekar

Thank you all for taking out the time to join us on the call today. If you have any further queries, we will be happy to address the same post the call.

You can get in touch with Arish for those. Thank you once again.

Prayesh Jain

Thank you.

Sundeep Sikka

Thank you very much.

Saugata Chatterjee

Yes. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited, that concludes this conference.

Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.