Shriram Finance Limited

Shriram Finance Limited

900.90
INR
-4.05
(-0.45%)
56.01EPS
18.59P/E
2.45TMarket Cap
Oct 23Next Earn

Q1 FY2027 · Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 24, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, you are connected for the Shriram Finance Limited conference call. Please stay connected.

This conference will begin shortly. Participants, you are connected for the Shriram Finance Limited conference call.

Please stay connected. The conference will begin shortly.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Shriram Finance Limited Q1 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 "*" and then "0" on your touchtone phone.

Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.

Umesh Revankar, Executive Vice Chairman, Shriram Finance Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Umesh Revankar

Thank you. Good evening to friends from India and Asia, and a warm welcome to everyone joining us from western part of the world.

I am excited to share our Q1 FY27 earning call with you today, and I am joined by our Managing Director and CEO Parag Sharma, Joint Managing Director and CFO Sunder, and Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mundra, our Executive Director and Investor Relations Head.

Looking back, the first quarter of the year has been positive one for Shriram Finance, especially given the current situation. Let us start by examining some broader economic indicators that affect our business directly or indirectly.

India's economy wrapped up FY25-26 on a strong note, with GDP growth picking up to 7.8% in the fourth quarter, which was a comfortable beat to the market expectation of 7.3% for the growth trajectory, and revised full-year real GDP growth rate of 7.7% with updated base year. However, RBI has lowered its economic growth forecast for FY27 to 6.6%.

This adjustment comes as they are concerned about global conflicts, energy prices, and weather conditions. India's retail inflation has increased to 4.38% in June, up from 3.93% in May.

This rise is mainly due to higher fuel and food prices, which have increased because of supply disruption driven by war in Middle East and delay in seasonal rains. India's wholesale price-based inflation jumped to record 9.87% in June, up from 9.68% in May.

Fuel and power prices went up a lot, which really pushed this number higher. Food inflation also hit an 18-month high, which affected overall index.

Coming to the recent RBI policy, here are main points from June 26 RBI monetary policy: repo rate stays at 5.25%, policy stance remains neutral, GDP forecast has been adjusted to 6.6% from earlier 6.9%, CPI inflation forecast has been raised to 5.1%, up from 4.6%. Coming to the rural economy, the biggest challenge for India's economy right now are geopolitical tension in West Asia and uneven rainfall from southwest monsoon.

A big monsoon deficit, a changing monsoon path, inconsistent rainfall could cause problems for agriculture, inflation, and overall spending. The IMD recently lowered its forecast for 2026 southwest monsoon, predicting only 90% of usual rainfall.

This is happening as El Niño gets stronger, which might lead to even more rainfall problems during important planting season. The latest Meteorological Department data shows India's southwest monsoon is in a long dry spell, with total seasonal rainfall now 24% below normal between June 4 to July 16.

The good news is that country has made some changes, like more irrigation, different ways for people to earn money in the countryside, which makes the whole economy stronger when it rains unpredictably compared to the past. Coming to the GST collection, India's GST collection went up by 13.9% year-on-year to ₹1.95 lakh crore in June '26, compared to ₹1.71 lakh crore in same month last year.

This increase was made mainly because of more money coming in for both domestic and imported goods. If you look at the whole April-June period of FY27, gross GST collection were ₹6.32 lakh crore, which is 8.4% increase from ₹5.83 lakh crore collected in the same period last year.

Coming to the auto industry, on OEM side, sales side, this quarter has been very good for automobile sector following GST rate cut. It had a positive impact, leading to significant surge in sales.

Commercial vehicle the sales increased by 14.1% in Q1 FY27 and stands at 2.65 lakh unit, as against 2.24 lakh unit in the Q1 '26. Within CV, M&HCV grew at 18.3% and stands at 95,910 units, against 84,040 units sold in the Q1 '26.

LCV sales recorded growth of 20.8% in Q1 FY27 and stands at 1.69 lakh unit versus 1.4 lakh unit sold in the Q1 '26. Passenger vehicle sales in Q1 '27 recorded a growth of 25.9% and stands at 12.74 lakh unit, as against 10.12 lakh units in Q1 '26.

Two-wheeler recorded growth of 20.3% with sales of 56.29 lakh unit in Q1, as against 46.78 lakh unit. Three-wheelers sales recorded growth of 29.7% in Q1 FY27, with sales of 2.14 lakh unit sold versus 1.65 lakh unit sold in Q1 '26.

Tractor sales recorded growth of 21.6% with 2.65 lakh unit sold, against 2.18 lakh unit sold in Q1 '26. Construction equipment recorded a growth of 8.8%, with 25,176 unit being sold against 23,147 units, and showing a growth after long negative growth in the last financial year.

Here, one highlight is the EV sales have gone up significantly, maybe due to the uncertainty about the fuel price. Very positive, the PV sales, passenger vehicle sales, increased by 94.8% to 84,665 units, against 43,464 units sold in Q1 '26.

Three-wheeler sales for Q1 increased by 13.2% to 2.15 lakh unit, against 1.9 lakh unit sold same period last year. Two-wheeler sales for Q1 '27 increased by 69.3% to 5.22 lakh unit, against 3.08 lakh unit sold in Q1 '26.

Now I shall ask my colleague Parag Sharma to take through the operational performance.

Parag Sharma

Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to our Q1 FY27 earning call, and I trust you had the opportunity to peruse our results and the related investor presentation, which have been posted on the website of stock exchanges.

We registered a disbursement growth of 19.51% YoY. Our disbursement in Q1 FY27 this year aggregated ₹49,974.49 crores versus ₹41,816.75 crores in Q1 FY26.

Our asset under management as on 30th June 2026 registered a growth of 15.26% over Q1 FY26 and of 3.81% sequentially. Our asset under management stood at ₹3,13,798.39 crores as against ₹2,72,249.01 crores a year ago and ₹3,02,273.75 crores in Q4 FY26.

Our net interest income in Q1 FY27 registered a growth of 33.67% YoY. We earned a net interest income of ₹8,055.70 crores in Q1 FY27 this year, as compared to ₹6,026.43 crores in Q1 FY26.

Our profit after tax grew by 59.79% and stands at ₹3,444.56 crores in Q1 FY27, as against ₹2,155.73 crores in Q1 FY26. The profit after tax was ₹3,013.57 crores in Q4 FY26.

Our net interest margin in Q1 FY27 was 9.04%, as against 8.11% in Q1 FY26 and 8.61% in Q4 FY26. Our earning per share for the quarter stood at ₹14.83, as against ₹11.46 in Q1 FY26.

On asset quality, gross Stage 3 in Q1 FY27 stood at 4.64% and net Stage 3 at 2.33%, as against 4.53% gross and 2.57% net in Q1 FY26, and was 4.58% gross and 2.33% net in Q4 FY26. Our credit cost to total asset for Q1 FY27 stood at 1.66%, as against 1.64% for Q1 FY26 and 1.68% for Q4 FY26.

Our cost to income ratio was 25.48% in Q1 FY27, as against 29.29% recorded in Q1 FY26. The same was 25.32% in Q4 FY26.

On the liability side, this quarter we didn't borrow much, and overall liabilities have come down from ₹2,50,690 crores as of March to ₹2,32,639 crores because of use of capital in the current quarter, which was infused in April 2026. The overall liabilities have come down.

The cost of liability has also come down from 8.59% to 8.56%, 3 basis point reduction. The incremental cost is at 7.77%.

The liquidity coverage ratio for the company was healthy at 262.54%, and liquidity is well maintained for 6 months of liability repayment. The leverage ratio came down because of this large capital infusion, is at 2.14 times versus 3.82 as of March.

The capital adequacy ratio for the company was healthy at 34.17%. With this, we can open the forum for question and answer.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session.

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

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

Again, to register for a question, please press "*" and then "1". Your first question comes from the line of Renish Hareshbhai Bhuva with ICICI.

Please go ahead.

Renish Hareshbhai Bhuva

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Congrats on a good set of numbers. Just two, three things.

Sir, first on this AUM mix, right? From a two- to three-year perspective, how do you see the share of new vehicle financing shaping up in overall vehicle financing portfolio?

What is the current risk-adjusted yield in this segment? It is better than the book risk-adjusted yield, or at par, or maybe slightly lower?

Also, if you can share how internally you estimate the return metrics for new vehicle, as in I just wanted to get a sense at product level the new vehicle finance book ROE in a steady-state basis will be upwards of 15%, 16%, or it will be slightly lower?

Umesh Revankar

Yeah. See, we are slowly increasing our new vehicle disbursement, focusing on existing customer upgrading.

See, our existing customer keep upgrading to new vehicle, and that's the common. Everyone has the aspiration to upgrade to new vehicle, and we have been financing them.

Plus, we are also reaching out to our earlier customer. See, Shriram has been in this business for nearly 50 years.

Many of our customers would have gone to the other players because we were not matching the interest rate in the past. Today, since we have a capital and since our cost of borrowing is coming down, we are able to match the rates.

Not only the match the rate, we are also able to service the customer much better. We are increasing our new vehicle portfolio.

Right now, on the disbursement basis, it is around 16% of the disbursement is new vehicle. Increasingly, it will go up next two to three years as we reach out to more number of our earlier customer.

Renish Hareshbhai Bhuva

Sir, any comment on the profitability in

Umesh Revankar

new? See, profitability, since we are passing on the reduced cost of borrowing to the customer, overall margins will not come down.

Our long-term margins of 8.5%, we will be able to manage.

Renish Hareshbhai Bhuva

Okay. Sir, second on the growth side, right?

While we were a little cautious during Q4 earnings call because of West Asia war, and hence we were not regular guiding for higher numbers. As you did mention in your opening remarks that Q1, despite being a seasonally weak quarter, the volumes are better.

Are we aspiring for 18% to 20% growth in this year itself, or we may want to, say, wait for another quarter and then reassess the guidance?

Umesh Revankar

We would like to wait for another quarter because the net impact of the deficit in monsoon is a little less known. We would like to wait for that.

We are confident that we'll be able to grow more than 15% at least for next quarter. Then onwards, if things are much better and we feel that we'll be able to catch up and grow faster.

Renish Hareshbhai Bhuva

Got it. Can you just share the full-year guidance on growth for this year at this point in time?

See,

Umesh Revankar

our earlier guidance of 18% will hold good unless, after second quarter we revise it.

Renish Hareshbhai Bhuva

Got it. Okay.

That's it, sir. Thank you and best of luck, sir.

Umesh Revankar

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Chintan with Autonomous.

Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

The first one is on asset quality. What kind of impacts are you currently seeing from the West Asia war?

Are you seeing capacity utilization come down? Are you seeing signs of demand destruction?

What signs are you currently seeing on the ground? See,

Umesh Revankar

basically, we were expecting that fuel price to go up steeply. Since the fuel price has not gone up steeply, the operating margin for the operators have not changed much.

They are able to pass on the increase in cost to either shipper or the end customer. That has not changed much.

The demand for the vehicle remains good because we have not seen any stress or vehicle idling anywhere. There has been good demand for the vehicle, and that is reflected in the way the sales have gone up.

If the utilization levels were a little lower, then sales would not have gone up by 20% year-on-year, which is as actually a positive surprise to us. Okay.

It's holding up well just now. Okay.

The second question is on margin. Your NIMs were 9% this quarter.

How should we think about your NIMs over the next three, four quarters? How should we think about the excess liquidity that you have on your balance sheet?

I'm kind of thinking about the next few quarters here rather than long term with the new vehicle finance. Let's leave that aside.

Just kind of trying to think about how your balance sheet develops over the next three, four quarters.

Umesh Revankar

See, immediately, two quarters, I think the current NIM will hold good because we are utilizing the capital. Over the medium term, definitely it will come down a little because our new vehicle mix will go up.

Right now, whatever the benefit we are getting because of the lower cost of borrowing, to some extent we are passing on to the new vehicle purchasers. I believe as new vehicle portfolio keep increasing within our this one, we will be able to manage the NIM at around 8.5% in the medium term.

This is where I have a problem with your guidance. I don't understand this 8.5% number.

You're currently at 9%. You've got excess liquidity on balance sheet, so that will probably go a little bit higher.

The mix shift, the way you're guiding on new vehicle loans, the mix is moving very slowly. How does the NIM then drop from, say, 9.1%, 9.2% back to 8.5%?

That just seems very conservative. Is it fair that you're just being conservative in this guidance?

See,

Umesh Revankar

I'm talking about medium term. Medium term is two to three years.

In the short term, I said

current NIMs will hold. Yeah.

Unless the

Umesh Revankar

No,

no, fair enough, but unless the new vehicle book grows very fast, it's hard to see that much mix shift come through and then see 8.5% NIM again. Either your growth will really go fast, which you're not guiding to, you're guiding to more balanced growth, then the mix shift it would be more like five years rather than two to three years.

I can understand if you're being conservative.

Umesh Revankar

See, we always have been conservative in our guidance. New vehicle if you look at the mix, from 10% our new vehicle volume we have increased to around 16%, 17% now.

It will keep increasing to around 20% to 25% over the period. Definitely, new vehicle book will be around 30% of our book, 30% plus in our book, maybe in the medium term.

Understood. Sir.

Then, finally, on the non-vehicle portfolios on asset quality, could you give us some sense what's happening in MSME, gold, PL, these areas where we are seeing GS3 inch up a little bit? Can you provide some color on what's happening there?

See,

Umesh Revankar

our gold portfolio is definitely growing very fast, and we expect it to grow very large because we have started using many of our existing branches for gold loan. Currently, around 2,200 branches are made ready for gold loan activity.

We expect the portfolio to grow double in the next three years, from around 2.5% of the overall book to around 5%, because we feel that that's a very big opportunity for us to grow in the gold. MSME book also, we have been traditionally lending in the southern market.

Other markets we have not really explored much. Since we have now branch network across the country, we will be able to grow our MSME book.

Last year, we were a little cautious because of the US tariff, and we were a little inconsistency in the policy, which many of the MSME were dependent on exports. Now, since there is the MSME by and large are able to find new market and expand market within India, we are confident of the growth in the MSME book.

From around 15% of the portfolio, the MSME will become around 20% of the book. Personal loan also, we would like to extend to other customers.

Hitherto, we were focusing only on two-wheeler customers. Now we will be offering this to other customers like gold, MSME customers also.

Personal loan book also will keep growing, but we try to as much as possible keep it within our known customer. We do not wish to make the outsourcing as a big way to move forward in a personal loan.

There's no worry about asset quality in gold and MSME at the moment, right? Because the GS3 crept up a little bit.

Umesh Revankar

Gold absolutely not. MSME, we have been cautious in the last one year.

We are now pretty confident about the MSME quality, asset quality.

Thank you. A final quick one, any guidance on opex?

Because your revenues are now growing stronger because of the excess capital, should we think about a stable cost-income ratio, or should we think about an improving cost-income ratio?

Umesh Revankar

Stable, I should say.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Kunal Shah with Citigroup.

Please go ahead.

Kunal Shah

Yeah. Thanks.

Firstly, again coming onto this entire deployment of liquidity question, if we look at it, money was utilized in terms of repaying the borrowings. Borrowings are down, and then there is some liquidity which is parked in the cash, bank balances, and the investments.

Hereon, do we assume that maybe now the repayment of the borrowing is largely done, we will not utilize the funds or excess liquidity to repay the borrowings, and it will be more utilized towards the growth? How long would it take to utilize this entire excess liquidity out there, which is currently on balance sheet?

Parag Sharma

I think whatever liability repayment we targeted, we have achieved. We'll be looking at business growth only, utilization towards more of growth only.

We previously also used to maintain slightly higher liquidity, which will be close to around 3 months of our future liability repayment, which works out to close to around ₹17,000 to ₹18,000 crores. The balance, what we have surplus of that, will definitely come down because of higher disbursement.

We don't look at any utilization towards liability repayment. In fact, we'll be looking at mobilization towards the end of the quarter, of fund mobilization also.

Yes, what you're saying is right. No more liability repayment, more of growth, and look at some mobilization towards the end of the quarter.

Kunal Shah

Got it. As this liquidity gets utilized into the growth, in fact, that should support the margins in the near term, and that's the reason you are confident that it will remain in this trajectory for a few quarters?

Parag Sharma

Correct.

Kunal Shah

Okay. Got it.

Secondly, in terms of the credit cost, given that it's holding on quite well, and you indicated that there is no stress reflected in any of the segment, do we stay with the credit cost guidance, or would there be any risk to whatever we are indicating? We are still hitting below our guidance of 2-odd percent.

Any changes out there on the credit cost front?

Umesh Revankar

I think it will hold good. Our see, our guidance has been around 2%.

It will remain around that in the near term or even in the medium term.

Kunal Shah

Okay. No risk out there?

Umesh Revankar

No.

Kunal Shah

Okay. MSME, we are starting to see the inflection.

Maybe it has started to grow quarter on quarter. As you are indicating, the MSME proportion will also inch up.

Should we see the accelerated pace in SME growth and getting towards the double-digit kind of a number on a year-on-year basis now, or would it still take some time before we get the comfort on the overall environment?

Umesh Revankar

No, I think it will start growing now. We are pretty comfortable and confident, and we would like to expand the market.

A

Kunal Shah

sequential momentum on MSME will pick up? Yes,

Umesh Revankar

yes.

Kunal Shah

Okay. Got it.

Just last question in terms of the data point, breakup of disbursements? Yeah.

Parag Sharma

CV for the current quarter was ₹19,556 crores, passenger vehicle ₹11,018 crores, construction equipment ₹792 crores, farm equipment ₹947 crores, MSME ₹6,184 crores, two-wheelers ₹3,548 crores, gold ₹5,153 crores, personal loans ₹2,776 crores, total ₹49,974 crores.

Kunal Shah

Thank you. Thanks a lot.

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Adarsh with PB Capital.

Please go ahead.

Good evening, sir. Am I audible?

Parag Sharma

Yeah.

Yeah. I want to ask a question regarding the gold.

As you know that our Prime Minister has requested our citizens to buy less gold. How this is going to affect the businesses for Shriram?

Overall, I want to understand the in the Middle East crisis and all, how this is going to affect the business of Shriram Finance?

Umesh Revankar

Basically, gold loan against the existing jewelry, it is not against the buying of the gold. Gold traditionally is not used for raising resources or borrowing.

People have been hesitant to part away with gold. Thanks to some of the NBFCs who specialized in gold, they have highlighted the advantages of raising resource against gold at a lower cost.

People who were otherwise would have raised personal loan or hand loan, now they are raising against gold for all their requirements. I believe the gold holding in India is pretty large, it will keep increasing.

Also, there is a large number of pawn brokers who are still in the business and doing pretty good. I think some of this business will flow into NBFCs.

In that way, I think it will turn out to be a good volume for everyone who is there in this business. West Asia crisis, even though there were certain challenges, especially in certain industry which was dependent on the petroleum product as their raw material, like plastic and all, there the cost went up, and there were some challenges for the manufacturers to pass it on to the end customers.

I think that phase is over now. One-time increase in cost is already passed on, and people have started living with it.

Therefore, I think there may not be further surprise unless the retail fuel price goes up further. Government also have taken a lot of measures in managing this by the higher ethanol mix.

E20 is going to be a norm now, and that is going to have, to some extent less dependent on the import. I think overall, I feel the situation is quite comfortable, and the economy is going doing quite well and growing at the indicated level of what RBI has indicated or forecasted at 6.6%.

I believe that economy is growing steady.

Thank you very much and congratulations for the good set of numbers.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Raghav Garg with Ambit Capital.

Please go ahead.

Raghav Garg

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

Most of my questions have been answered. One, I know you said that your incremental cost of funds is 7.77%.

I just wanted to know what is the incremental cost of bank funds, if you can share that, please?

Parag Sharma

Yeah. We're not borrowed from banks in the current quarter.

When we start borrowing, I think it will be in the range of around 8%.

Raghav Garg

Around 8%. Okay.

Superb. The second question is on your MSME portfolio.

See, I think at the time of the merger, the thought process was to expand that portfolio across the rest of the branches in India, non-south states and regions. As of today, where are you?

Has the product been rolled out across all those branches that you were targeting, or there's still some more penetration to go there? That's the second question.

Thank you.

Umesh Revankar

No, I think it is a long way to go. There are a lot of scope and opportunity.

We were mostly in the south. Now in the west, we have rolled it out.

We need to grow more in the north and east, which we are looking at scaling up. We are also trying to have more specialized people in these areas.

As we are able to get more specialized and experienced people, we should be able to grow that business across India.

Raghav Garg

Can you share some numbers, maybe in terms of your percentage of branches covered? What would be right now in the west, and then as you go into north, that will help us get some idea on what is the opportunity out there?

See,

Umesh Revankar

not all branches we were doing. Even in the south, we were not using all branches for sourcing the MSME.

We were focusing on the certain pockets where the MSME segment is pretty large. In other branches, it's mostly lending to small shopkeepers or trading activity.

The manufacturing MSMEs and all are mostly focused in the what you call industrialized belt. There we need to build certain manpower, especially when you go to north and all, north, central.

That is where we need to build business. We are covering most of the southern part now.

If not from all branches, we are sourcing from all branches, but processing in the few branches. It's a hub-and-spoke in as far as MSME goes.

Raghav Garg

Understood. That's all from my side.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rajiv Mehta with YES Securities.

Please go ahead.

Rajiv Mehta

Hi. Good evening.

Congratulations on good numbers. My first question is on this very resilient CV growth that we are seeing even in Q1.

Is it largely reflecting that the demand on the ground has kind of stood up well despite, the movement in fuel price and, not so, if the full pass-on did not happen also in the quarter? Still, the demand for used vehicles was pretty healthy in your, cohort or your vintage segments?

Or is it also a reflection of some declining competitive intensity, which benefited us? Or did we use some flexibility in underwriting or pricing because our cost of funds is now moving down?

Can you just elaborate on what have been some, granular drivers of growth in UCV in this quarter? See,

Umesh Revankar

if you look at the broad numbers, it's in line with the increase in sales itself. The CV sales have gone up by nearly 20%, both M&HCV and LCV put together.

Naturally, any player in this market, it will grow by 20% very comfortably because market is growing at 20%. Even in used vehicle, the demand is quite good from the rural market.

I think it's a very comfortable journey. We have not really made extra push for growing the CV.

Yes, we have been doing more new vehicle, naturally our growth rate will be higher because the ticket size of new vehicles are pretty large.

Rajiv Mehta

Sir, for the remaining part of the year, would it be right to say that you're most comfortable as far as the growth outlook is concerned in CV per se, because I think this segment grew well in Q4 last year as well as Q1 of this year? Would you expect this momentum of growth to last for the whole year?

Umesh Revankar

See, current scenario in mind, yes, I feel the growth rate will be comfortable, and we'll be able to go as per the guidelines. We would like to still wait till the second quarter for the actual impact of El Niño, as we would see whether agricultural output drops.

Right now, the indication is that rice cultivation there may not be downtrend. It will be flat year-on-year.

There will be some downtrend in the oilseeds and the pulses because the central India got less rainfall, and that is the current estimation. I think if there is a prolonged rain, then there may be delay in the output.

There can be some kind of a new surprises, like positive surprise like rain continuing hold longer and good output. Then, of course, we need to wait for the rabi crop.

Ultimately, there is a little uncertainty towards the output and the rural income. That is the only challenge.

We would like to wait and see. Otherwise, our guidance hold good.

Rajiv Mehta

Sir, this revival in growth in used PV, right? Last quarter, I think we went slow despite the market was pretty strong.

Now in this quarter, I think we have accelerated growth when I look at how the portfolio has grown on Q-on-Q basis. What has changed in our approach between two quarters?

Umesh Revankar

There's no change. I feel as I was telling you, the new vehicle portfolio has gone up, volume has gone up.

Okay.

Rajiv Mehta

Just lastly, on the gold loan portfolio, how have we kind of adjusted with the new guidelines which came into play from 1st April? Because I think we have seen a good growth in portfolio in this quarter.

At the same time, on the asset quality side, we've seen some forward flows. Stage 2 has gone up, and Stage 3 has also gone up in the gold loan portfolio.

Anything any connection with the new regulations, or any change in the way we shoot the business, before and now post the regulations?

Umesh Revankar

No, there's no fresh guidelines. The guidelines came a year back.

I don't see any fresh guidelines recently. I feel the portfolio is holding very good.

There may be some change in the buckets because we are trying to promote more on the interest-servicing gold loan. Normally, they are habituated to pay only bullet payment.

We're trying to make the customers more towards interest payment. That's the only thing, I think, change.

Anything else?

Rajiv Mehta

No, nothing. Sir.

Thank you and best of luck.

Umesh Revankar

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Aditya Vikram with PB Securities.

Please go ahead.

Aditya Vikram

Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

Good evening, sir. Sir, I wanted to understand of your NIMs, which is at 9.04%, what percentage of this has come from the parked funds?

Sunder Subramanian

Around ₹500 crores of the NII which is being reflected is out of the parked funds, the ₹3,000 ₹29,600 crores what we received as fresh capital. That has contributed to the ₹500 crores of additional interest income.

Okay. Will that so

Aditya Vikram

the guidance which you're giving for the shorter term that the NIMs will hold at this level, and considering the cautious commentary, right, because of the uncertain situation, that ₹500 will remain static for next quarter as well, right, the this current quarter?

Sunder Subramanian

It will gradually come down. What we were indicating earlier is that the operational NIMs will hold at around 8.5%, and we continue to guide that.

The benefit of the surplus liquidity, the equity that we had come in, will gradually subside over a period of time. Okay.

All right.

Aditya Vikram

My next question then is, sir, with this Iran war again flaring up, right, and the weather being uncertain and based on IMD prediction, July and August does not look very, August and September might actually lead to lower rainfall or El Niño impact getting heavier and heavier, right? Are we confident that the disbursements and everything else which we are guiding for, right, we won't have any negative surprise on that front?

Umesh Revankar

No, right now we feel that we're pretty confident of similar growth as first quarter.

Aditya Vikram

Okay. Last and the final, sir, the new loan portfolio, right?

We currently, you said if I heard you correctly, is 16%, right, of the total numbers, or it has increased gradually. That ideally comes at a lower NIMs, right, lower than the second-hand purchases,

Umesh Revankar

right?

Aditya Vikram

Will that be NIM accretive for us, or do you see still we will be able to manage everything as it stands because of the surplus liquidity, the 500 coming from there? See,

Umesh Revankar

basically, borrowing cost which is lower borrowing cost is getting passed on to them. It is not, there may not be big change in the NIM because of that.

Aditya Vikram

The only reason why I'm asking, sir, is because some of the peers have suggested that the funding is getting a little tighter, right, and funding costs are increasing. You don't see any challenge or any negativity coming in from that front, because you are saying that our cost will go down, and in case if we take bank funding, it would be around 8%.

Parag Sharma

In fact, previously we used to borrow as a AA-rated entity, and now we are getting the benefit of rating. That itself gives us some benefit of lower cost.

Aditya Vikram

Okay. For this quarter, it was 3 bps, right?

For this quarter, it was 3 bps. 3

Parag Sharma

bps is on the overall liabilities, which has come down.

Aditya Vikram

Okay.

Parag Sharma

Talking about the incremental, we didn't borrow much, in fact. Overall liabilities have come down, and that has some high cost paid off, and overall liability cost came down.

When we do the incremental borrowing, which was at 7.77%, 7.80% levels, which will be much lower than the cost of liabilities on balance sheet, which is 8.56%. Incremental borrowing cost will be lower, and that is why we are confident about overall costs still coming down further.

Aditya Vikram

Sir, the only thing I don't understand then is you have surplus liquidity within your books, right? You have again said that between August and October, you will be raising new funds.

What is that going to use for?

Parag Sharma

No, in fact, what we said is the overall liquidity which was more as of June will be utilized for growth. We'll be utilizing excess liquidity in 1, 1.5 months, and then look at fresh borrowing.

Aditya Vikram

Okay. For growth.

Parag Sharma

Only for growth.

Aditya Vikram

Okay. Got it.

Thank you so much, sir. Have a good day.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bunty Chawla with Ask Wealth.

Please go ahead.

Bunty Chawla

Thank you, sir, for giving me the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My questions have been answered, just two.

First is that now we are seeing their off-balance sheet as a percentage of total AUM is coming down consecutively from last few quarters. What is the thought process on this, any change in the strategy?

Are we not going for the securitization or assignment, or there is not much of a demand from the banking sector? How one should see this?

See,

Parag Sharma

since our overall borrowing program was subdued for the quarter, we have not done transactions of securitization or direct assignment. The transactions were not done.

When we talk about fresh borrowing towards the end of the quarter, it will be in the form of securitization also. We will look at opportunities.

I don't think there is any dearth of demand for securitized instruments. It's only that because we were carrying higher liquidity, we didn't borrow in any format.

That is why whatever portfolio was there was on a monthly amortizing basis. It has been paid off and not replaced with fresh transactions, which will happen towards the end of the quarter.

Bunty Chawla

Okay. Secondly, as you said, the full-year guidance still remains at 18%, and Q2 might be around 15% to 16%.

It seems to be slightly heavy demand from second half. On that basis, what we have done in terms of branch expansion, employee-base expansion?

Because still we are guiding for the cost-to-income ratio as a stable entity. Any thought process or any data point if you can share?

Umesh Revankar

We'll be adding some branches, and definitely will increase the manpower. That will not come at additional cost.

It is as volume goes up, that additional cost will be absorbed. We don't really see a big change in the our operational cost or cost-to-income ratio.

Bunty Chawla

Total branches to be added for full-year FY27, if you can share that number?

Umesh Revankar

Tentatively around 150 branches.

Bunty Chawla

Okay. Lastly, sir, just one request.

As we are now moving more towards new CV portfolio, if you can share a presentation out of at least from the CV portfolio what is the new and what is the old, used vehicle in the CV portfolio. That will be quite helpful.

Thank you.

Umesh Revankar

Sanjay will provide that information offline.

Bunty Chawla

Okay. Thank you.

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Pranuj Shah with 3P Investment Managers.

Please go ahead.

Pranuj Shah

Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

Just on your MSME book, coming back to the growth, I think you had ₹6,200 crores of disbursement this quarter. For the QoQ growth to pick up, you would need to sizably move up from 2Q and then hit a ₹7,000-crore run rate plus from 3Q, 4Q onwards.

Is that the kind of number that we are looking at?

Umesh Revankar

Definitely, yes.

Pranuj Shah

Okay. Should your MSME growth for the full year be in line or higher than your overall book for this particular year, FY27?

Umesh Revankar

Overall book, we have given guidance now. It'll be as per the guidance.

Pranuj Shah

Okay. No guidance as to whether MSME can surpass that 18% target for the overall book?

Umesh Revankar

MSME growth will be definitely higher than this because we are projecting CV at around 15%, MSME book and gold will be faster.

Pranuj Shah

Understood, sir. Perfect.

Just second question on the growth itself, your construction equipment has steadily been coming off, and now it's been sub-₹1,000-crore disbursement for the last five quarters. What will give you confidence to pull this back up to that ₹2,000-crore run rate you used to have until FY25?

Umesh Revankar

No, we are seeing that there is some demand slowly coming back because the sales of construction equipment in the first quarter has started positive from the negative. Last year, if you see all the four quarter, it was growing negative.

This quarter, it is positive. We believe that there can be a demand coming back into construction equipment, we should be start growing that book from next quarter.

Pranuj Shah

You don't see any lingering AQ concerns in that space?

Umesh Revankar

No, we feel it's robust.

Pranuj Shah

Understood. Got it.

Perfect. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Mayank Mistry with Antique Stock Broking.

Please go ahead.

Mayank Mistry

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good quarter.

Sir, most of my questions are answered. Just wanted to know, your long-term view of this used vehicle demand.

Since you highlighted that over near term this E20-based petroleum has kept price lower and the demand is right now good, but there is also a theory that E20-based petroleum is impacting durability of the vehicle. Do you see this as a long-term risk in the inventory specially, which can also, impact the borrowers' demand later on since borrowers will not be keen on buying these used vehicles if, the vehicles are not so long cannot be used for a long longer tenures?

Umesh Revankar

See, this is basically, I think, challenge with the cars. That's what I understand.

I don't see that is having any impact as of now, because maybe the people who have older personal car will have some challenges. The OEMs have said that their cars are capable of running on the E20.

We really don't have a clear picture on the same.

Mayank Mistry

Sir. Basically, I was asking this from, maybe from a five- to six-years point of view.

Umesh Revankar

So— I agree. I really don't see any challenge there.

See, if the very old cars we don't normally finance a car which are more than seven years. Trucks we do.

There is no problem with trucks there. It's basically on the personal cars.

There may not be a big challenge is what I feel.

Mayank Mistry

Sir. That's all from my side.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. A next follow-up question comes from the line of Aditya Vikram from PB Securities.

Please go ahead.

Aditya Vikram

Sir, just one more thing. This quarter, our Stage 3 assets increased 18% YoY and 5%, 5.5% or approximately, yeah, 5.5% QoQ, right?

It seems some Stage 3 assets have increased on the CV side. What kind of a challenges are you seeing, or because now we have funds, we are trying to clean up our books a little faster?

I did say

Umesh Revankar

if you see the numbers, it is marginal increase only. From 4.58%, it has gone to 4.63%, the Stage 3.

This seasonal impact are there, I don't really see there's a big change.

Aditya Vikram

Okay. I just wanted to clarify that because that number 18% looked higher, just wanted to see if you're trying to clean up books a little faster than we ideally would.

You think it's a seasonal impact, mostly nothing to do with the uncertain weather or the crisis as such?

Umesh Revankar

Yeah. Okay.

Aditya Vikram

Okay. Thank you so much, sir.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as our last question for today.

I now hand the conference call over to Mr. Umesh Revankar for closing comments.

Umesh Revankar

Thank you. We had a good quarter, I should say.

Second quarter is normally a little tricky because of depending upon the rainfalls, and of course, there is added uncertainty of West Asia crisis. We are very confident that company will do well, and we will come out with a good set of numbers.

Thank you for joining.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Shriram Finance Limited, that concludes this conference.

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