Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We have the first question from the line of Chintan Shah from ICICI Securities.

Thank you for the opportunity and c ongratulations on good set of numbers. So , sir, just on the opex front, so basically out of this Rs. 518 crores of opex.

Chintan, can you be slightly louder? I can't hear you.

Sure. Is it better?

Yes, much better.

Yes. First of all, thanks for the opportunity and c ongratulations on a good set of numbers. So , sir, on the opex front, largely, I wanted to understand, so of this Rs. 518 crores of opex, so what will be the split of the opex in terms of basically for the non -employee cost, how much of that would be towards this technology initiatives that we have been taking? And what would be towards probably outsourcing or the DSA cost, just firstly on that?

Chintan, we've not given a breakup right now on the same. But I think what's important is, if I remember the figures we were close to, we had given a guidance of being crossing 5, but we are close to 4.8x AUM. And I like to normally look at opex cost as a percentage to AUM because all of it is getting used for those seven businesses that we are actually calibrating and building the whole distribution. So , our efficiencies for this year, I have already stated, should be measured on how efficiently we can build AUMs. I mean that's the kind of an answer, which I think at this junction would be more appropriate.

Okay. Sure.

Be little louder, please.

Yes. Sure. Sorry, sir. So, sir, probably just to ask something in a different manner. So , in terms of our current sourcing mix for across the products, how much of that would be brand driven and how much of that would be via Fintech partners or DSA or any other sources? Basically, just trying to understand direct sourcing via Poonawalla's own network and indirect sourcing? Any breakup or any numbers on that would be really helpful?

See, let me, for a moment start with a breakup like what do we acquire from our own sources and what do we acquire from partners? Let me, for a moment, split that. So , I think it will be a mix of close to 18% to 20% will be on our self-reliance and the rest would be still a mix of DSAs, Fintech partners and various distributions that we rely on. So, we've reached close to 18% to 20% acquisition happens with self-reliance.

Okay, and self-reliance would largely mean branches, right, or anything apart from that as well?

So even our website , by the way, our digital journeys, what I announced, if you take, for example, even PL Prime, the digital part is almost 25% of what we do now on a monthly basis. So, if you see even the Prime business, we are pretty robust. And similarly, we are building various digital journeys. And if you saw the reason I shared our marketing plans of using Google and Meta was to tell you that, that is basically a hint in the direction that we are doing a fair amount of bid to make our awareness in the virtual world to build that strength, to rapidly expand our acquisition directly on all digital acquisition that we do today.

Understood. And sir, any ballpark sense on what this number could look like 18%, 20% by FY27 or FY28?

To be honest, the plan is to grow it. I mean, it should be year -on-year growing. It is difficult to say what number it will be, but self-reliance would be an important initiative for us. But it should grow upwards and grow in a growing direction because the businesses we are acquiring obviously has much better cost, has much better efficiencies and are much more self-reliant.

Sure, understood. And just one last thing just happening on this again...

And one more thing, as your customer franchise , sorry, I'll just add one more thing. As your customer franchise grows , remember one thing, as your cross -sell base grows, the number of customers actually coming back to us on the initiatives of marketing as well as all the in -house reliance substantially would go upwards. You just need to have a very good acceptability with external customer base as well. So , I would not like to decrease that as far as possible while growing our internal strengths. See, look at our consumer durable, while that might be dependent initially on the point of acquisition of this 10,000 outlets that we've got, but what happens a year or two later when the cross-sell starts. So, you have the same probably, let's say, approximately 3 lakh, 4 lakh customers additionally acquired, go to 10 lakh, 15 lakh customers next year. All this cross -sell, which starts, creates multiple customers at much lower cost, increases your customer fran chise by a very significant proportion over last year even now, and it will increase substantially over the next year. So, this will create a far more environment for self-reliance.

Sure, understand. And just one last thing on what would this number be around March 2025 quarter, that is Q4FY25, this would be how much, around 10%, 12%?

I think you should take it as 18% to 20%. I mean, I haven't mastered every quarter -on-quarter for the exact number, but in case you feel that. One thing, self-reliance is increasing, but I'm also building multiple distributions. Like in education loans, we are building our entire franchise. I shared with you that entire distribution we are building on counselors. On commercial vehicles, we've gone to 400 -plus dealers. On consumer durable, we are building a whole 10,000 outlets going to 12,000, maybe 20,000 next year. So , with this kind of thing, we are building almost five, six distributions. That's why if you heard my second or third page when I was, I actually took out some time to recalibrate for you. One of the big strengths the company is building, I realize in my limited assessment is we're building multiple distributions. So , one strength could be in -house in that. Otherwise, we are also calibrating and building multiple distributions across gold, across geographies, across our digital penetration, across various products that we've launched.

Sure. This is super useful. And I will probably get back in the queue for further questions. All the very best.

And if you see the deliverables also, which is the brass stacks, quarter -on-quarter, we're almost either doubling or tripling stuff, and we are moving at a very healthy rate. So, all the projections that we had done for this year, we do expect most of the run rates to be fairly more robust than our plans.

We have the next question from the line of Nischint Chawathe from Kotak Institutional Equities.

Nischint here from Kotak. Just a small one. Thanks for the detailed introduction. But just a small one is if I look at your coverage on Stage 1 loans and that has kind of come up quite significantly from like 2.8% to 2.7%. I understand that, obviously, the re is a big change in the composition of book. But I think as you further add the secured assets, where do you really see this settling down? And the other one also is that when you are just about starting these businesses, you obviously have an internal track record of the PDs and LGDs. So how do you kind of work out this number?

Yes. So , when you start building out some of these businesses, those business lines, which Poonawalla has probably not done in the past, how do you kind of assess the PDs and LGDs and hence, work out the Stage 1 or 2 coverage ratios?

Yes, you're right that Stage 1, if you see, has been increasing significantly, and it has crossed 97%, 97.12% to be precise as on September 2025. The ECL provision across stages is well provided book, and the way the PD, LGD for the new clients is new to PFL also. So, at product level, for each of the products, where we may not have significant experience of our own, so we have taken help of professional agencies.

And Professional Managing Director, who has done all these businesses and a professional team who has done this earlier.

So, this is th ere, they have mapped our product basket with a similar set of peer groups and accordingly, the PD, LGD has been worked out at each product level.

So I think, see, remember, none of these businesses, as I said earlier as well, is a surprise to us. Whether it's my risk team, whether it's the Chief Business Officers, we are well-versed with all these businesses. As a company, Poonawalla, you're absolutely right. These are new businesses. But it's a new management team who's probably done it for a couple of decades, and we come here with that experience. So, we are not new to the nuances, both in business, risk, collections. I can assure you, this is all very planned and thought through. So, which is why you see Stage 1 improving. If you notice, most companies, by the way, don't show Stage 1. And it's quite interesting, I noticed that, because Stage 1 to get that kind of thing , can give you a very clear indicator. I'm talking about the business guy, not a specialist or analyst. Normally, Stage 1 gives a very clear picture of the future.

And add to what MD said. Of course, all the products have been done. We have 21-22 years experience of doing all these products. We have all the information today available with the bureaus, and we know each product, how do they perform across ticket size s, geographies and all of that and that also kind of helps us when we build those kind of look -alike customers. So it's not that difficult to do that. And if you see, sequentially we have improved over last 4 quarters. So that kind of gives you a sense in terms of what we are kind of handling now.

Got it. That answers my question. Thank you very much and all the best.

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Kaitav Shah from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.

Sir, just a couple of quick questions. Number one was on the STPL book. How is that shaping up? I think you mentioned in your commentary that it has been growing at a pretty good pace. So one is if you can perhaps throw more light on that? And second was o n the credit cost. So that still remains at slightly sticky at 250 bps. So how do you see that going ahead over the next 1 year or so?

Coming to the part 2 of your question. See, if you look at our overall credit costs have been range bound to around 2.67%. Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 assets have sequentially improved quarter-on-quarter. As the contribution of the core products, including the new product keeps growing and gain full-scale participation in the product basket, the share of the credit calibrated instant loan book will be normalized to lower levels. This will have a favorable bias on the overall credit cost for the next 3 to 5 years. The strategy here is to continuously calibrate and the product mix adjustments will aid in our stated objective in achieving our best-in-class credit cost in the industry.

Yes. I think on the new instant loans that we like to call it now , with the calibration that I think Shriram’s team has done over the 6, 7 calibrations. We are, Kaitav, moving on a pretty decent levels. Right now, on a monthly basis, quarter -on-quarter, it's taken an upward trend. We are quite pleased with the last 12 months' credit calibration. It's pretty much in line with where we are. The advantage is that as you go forward and you start getting your good-quality cross-sells and stuff, I think we could see even a strength of ROAs going up on this one. Today, everything is new acquisition for us, not just here across businesses. So, you'll appreciate that across businesses, our strengths with new customers will start increasing. By the same time next year, we could be on a very robust cross -sell. We are building in a lot of efficiencies for ourselves. And I think, let me be honest with you, we are excited about it. I think that probably gives you a feel.

Kaitav, also one point which I had kind of called out that the new calibrated book, we are seeing the bounce rates have come down 70% now. So , that kind of gives us the confidence. And the collection efficiency has also equally improved to 40%, right? And with the product mix changing, this will have a bias towards the best-in-class credit quality.

Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that was the last question. I now hand it over to the management for closing comments.

I think I wish all of you a very happy Diwali, and thanks for always being kind and supporting. We are looking confident and excited for the journey ahead. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a great weekend.

Thank you. On behalf of Poonawalla Fincorp Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.