Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Aavas Financiers Limited (NSE: AAVAS) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 05, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Rakesh Shinde — Head of Investor Relations
Analysts:
Kunal Shah — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the AWAS Financers Limited FY26 earnings conference call. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the lesson 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 Star then zero on a Touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rakesh Chinder, head investor relations of Awaas Finances Ltd. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Rakesh Shinde — Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, Yusuf. Good evening everyone and a warm welcome to all participants. Joining us today to discuss the financial and operating performance
Operator
Of AWA’s Finances Limited for Quarter 4 and FY26 along with our outlook for the business. The results and the investor presentation have been uploaded to the stock exchanges and are also available on our website. I hope you have had a chance to review them. We have also uploaded Excel fact sheet containing historical data on our website for your easy reference. Joining me today is the entire management team of AWAs. We will begin this call with opening remarks from our CEO Manu Singh, CFO Vinsham Rawat and CRO Atutush Afray.
This will be followed by question and answer session. With that, let me now hand over the call to Manu. Over to you, Manu.
Rakesh Shinde — Head of Investor Relations
Good evening everyone and thank you so much. Rakesh and Yusuf. Before I delve into the quarterly results, let me tell you that it’s an absolute privilege to address you first time as the CEO of awas. I’m grateful to the Board and to the entire AWAAS family for their trust and confidence. Myself, I bring over 25 years of experience in lending with track records of scaling lending businesses across both geographies and product suites. My experience spans across sourcing credit operations, collections and a deep exposure to operating in regulated environments with very strong focus on risk management, governance and execution discipline.
Over the years, AWAS has built a very high quality franchise defined by proven growth, disciplined risk management and a strong commitment to the communities we serve. This is evident in our consistently pristine asset quality, strong governance standards, rigorous compliance and best in class underwriting capabilities, particularly in the assessed income segment. As we step into the next phase of our growth journey, our priorities are very clear to scale the franchise responsibly, enhance operating efficiency and continue to deliver sustainable risk adjusted returns.
We will remain firmly anchored to a customer first and credit first philosophy and strengthen our core fundamentals in each market that we serve. We see a significant opportunity ahead in deepening our presence, improving per person productivity, driving profitable growth. All of this without compromising on asset quality or our government standards. Me and my team are very, very optimistic about the opportunities ahead and look forward to working closely, engaging actively with all of you as we build the next chapter of AWAAS journey with two very important focal points, sharper execution and long term value creation.
Quickly coming to operations for awards for FY26 this is a year of landmarks and milestones. In the year we saw change of promoters welcoming CVC Capital Partners, our balance sheet crossing 200 billion and our net worth crossing 50 billion marks. We have expanded our reach to the southern markets and our lifetime disbursements have crossed 400 billion mark enabling 4 lakh customers to have their dream AWAAS which is home ownership. Further, our credit rating outlook was upgraded to positive by ICRA and CARE both.
All of these stand testament to the trust customers and stakeholders place in AWAS and we know this fiduciary responsibility of continuing to deliver on the same quarter on quarter. At a very macro level, FY26 has seen multiple structural enablers including policy reforms, continue FDI liberalization and progress and trade agreements. The focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets have also strengthened the ecosystem. Yes, the cumulative 125 basis repo cut by RBI has improved affordability creating strong tailwinds for the segment as a whole which is affordable housing demand.
From a business perspective Q4 was encouraging. It is worse 23.5 billion, 16% higher than same time last year and 36% growth quarter on quarter which firmly reflects an improving operating rhythm of the business. Our AU at the end of FY26 stood at 234.5 billion registering a y o y growth of 15% while disbursements for the year grew 11% at 67.8 billion rupees. More importantly, our credit first approach continues to benefit us with best in class asset quality. Our one GPD has shown sharp improvement across geographies resulting in a lower GMP almost tracking close to historical low levels of 1%.
During the last quarter we added 31 branches taking our total network to 435 branches across 15 states. This is a testament to us progressively and continually investing in our business. This expansion was largely concentrated in focused growth markets such as Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat aimed at deepening our presence, improving the reach and driving incremental disbursement momentum in areas which have really good high potential. As we look ahead, our long term strategic priorities remain firm and clear to leverage our distribution network to take advantage of years of developed local market knowledge which our branches have, drive scale efficiently, optimize costs, enhance productivity and start leveraging our digital platforms.
With that preamble I now take you through our quarterly performance. Our Net profit for quarter four grew by 18% to Rupees 1.82 billion led by a robust 17% YoY growth in NII on account of healthy improvement in our NIMS, our network continues to compound steadily growing at 16% YMY Our NIMS expanded 44bps sequentially to 8.45% during the quarter. NIMS improved by 29bps overall in FY26. This was supported by improvement in spread coupled with our continuous focus on risk adjusted pricing suiting our customer segments.
Our asset quality remains pristine with one GPD well below 4% improving 63 bids sequentially to 3.17% as of March ending while GMP improved by 14bps quarter on quarter to 1.05%. Credit costs improved to 13bps driven by lower one plus flow and improved across buckets. We continue to maintain our guidance on keeping credit costs under check below 25 bits for sure on a sustainable basis. Our ROA improved by 13bps to 3.5% and ROE improved 38bps quarter on quarter to 14.67% in quarter four. Together as a team, we remain focused on delivering quality, profitable growth, strong risk discipline, getting tech led efficiencies into our business while creating consistently long term value for stakeholders.
With that ladies and gentlemen, I would now hand over to our CFO Mr. Gansham Robert to discuss the financials in detail with you. Thank you Manu Good evening everyone and a warm welcome to our earning call. First to provide update on borrowing, the improvement in cost of funds continue to underscore the strength and resilience of AWASOME diversified liability franchise in line with our strategy of innovation and liability sourcing, we proactively anticipated the potential softening of interest rates and strategically shifted a sizable portion of our borrowing to EBLR linked instruments and various market benchmarks.
This forward looking approach has continued to yield tangible benefit in FY26 as our liabilities are repriced faster than those of many peers which led to contain overall borrowing cost. This position US well to maintain a competitive cost of fund while supporting sustainable long term quality growth. During FY26 we also successfully secured commitment of Rupees 975 crore USD 108 million from a multi industrial financial institution at a very competitive cost. This represents the largest MCD placement in the company’s history and underscore our position as one of the leading players in affordable finance.
It also reflects strong external confidence in our measured quality led growth strategy and long term vision of servicing in affordable housing space. The proceed from this financing we deployed to support affordable housing loans to EWS and LIG category, promote women ownership scale green certified housing and expand our MSME lending in underserved regions, further strengthening our development focused lending franchise. A well diversified liability franchise linked to various benchmark and competitive price.
We were able to deliver 62 basis point improvement in overall cost of fund for FY26. Our spread improved by 31 basis point year on year to 5.20% in FY26. We continue to grow judiciously raising around 67.05 billion at competitive rate at 7.61% for FY26 as on 30th March 2026 the outstanding borrowing stood at Rupee 204 billion. Our tenure borrowing continued to be longer than total of our assets ensuring a positive ALM across all the buckets. We have optimal mix of various benchmark of interest rates such as 40% borrowing linked to external benchmark such as rapport TBL Malgor and 33% linked to three month MCLR enabling faster repricing of nearly 73% over borrowing in line with the interest rate movements.
We have successfully accessed a cost effective fund raising revenue through the issuance of around 500 million of AAA rated PTC first time in IRA’s history. Lender support remains strong as AWA continue to evolve to maintain access to diversified and cost effective lump sum funding. Our relationship with developers and institutions remained robust supporting our strategic funding Goals as of 31st March 2026 we maintained ample liquidity includes cash and cash equivalent and underweight cash credit limits of rupees 19 billion documented unavailed sanctions of rupees 9.75 billion profitability and capital positions Total net total income NIM in absolute terms grew by 18% year on year in quarter four FY26 and 18% in full year net interest margin NIM as a percentage total assets expanded by 44 basis points quarter over quarter to 8.45% in quarter four FY26 and 29 basis points in FY26.
We remain well capitalized with a net worth of 50.5 billion with a capital to risk weighted assets ratio of 44.6% significantly above the regulatory requirement. Net profit for FYI grew by 14% and net worth continued to grow at 16%. Now I would like to hand over the light to our CRO Ashutosh ATRE to discuss the assets quality.
Operator
Thank you, Nanchanji. Good evening everyone. I am pleased to share the key portfolio risk parameters with you. Asset Quality and Provisioning AWA is strongly positioned to continue delivering industry leading asset quality. Our asset quality remains within the guided range with one day past due well below 4% at 3.17% in FY26 versus 3.38% in FY25 and gross stage three and net stage three improved to 1.05% and 0.68% respectively. During the quarter there was a reduction in absolute value of 1 +bpd and percentage which improved by 63 basis points and gross phase 3 by 14 basis point from December 25.
From a geographical perspective, asset quality in our vintage states continued to remain healthy. The average 1 DPD and GNPA stood well below 4% and 1.25% of AUM. Similarly, in our emerging markets we are observing healthy credit performance with one DPT and GNPA levels remaining comfortably within 4% and 1% of AVM respectively. Our total ECL provisioning, including that for COVID 19 impact as well as resolution framework 2.0 stood at Rupees 1.3 billion as of 31st of March 2026. Our disciplined underwriting standards coupled with Productive Risk Management framework have enabled us to stay ahead of emerging macroeconomic challenges.
We continue to follow a rigorous credit assessment process, stress tested across multiple economic scenarios and remain selectively calibrated in our exposure to high risk segments. This approach has helped us preserve asset quality which continues to rank among the
Rakesh Shinde — Head of Investor Relations
Best in the industry. With this, I open the floor for Q and A. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press STAR and two participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Ranesh Bhua from ICICI Securities. Please proceed.
Rakesh Shinde — Head of Investor Relations
Yeah. Hi, sir. Comments on a good set of numbers, Sir? Just Two Question one on the,
Operator
On the sort of medium term strategy, right. So I do understand you want to spend only 10, 15 days, but maybe if you can just broadly guide us, how do you think about the sector’s medium term growth and where does AWAD stand in terms of growth outlook and maybe what is your expirational growth target for 27 and 28? That’s my first question.
Rakesh Shinde — Head of Investor Relations
Hi, thank you so much for that question. I’ll take them separately. The first, I’ll take your second question first, which is long term growth strategy. Our aspirations clearly is to consistently deliver 20% plus AUM growth largely to outperform industry.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
On
Rakesh Shinde
Your question of short and medium term growth, I think me and the team is very clearly focused on sharp execution of our already laid down strategies of growth. When I mean sharp execution, I mean the following two, three things which is having the product and customer suite along with its pricing, right. Second, looking at the channel composition today in the sourcing funnel and tweaking that for optimization.
Operator
Third,
Rakesh Shinde
We’ve invested in geographical expansion and other than Rajasthan getting the high potential states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, up southern states quickly climb up to their potential because they are now well staffed.
Operator
Last
Rakesh Shinde
But not the least, managing leakages. Leakages in funnel which is what do you source as login sanctions, disbursement and is it weakly disciplined into an order which follows a particular pattern of percentages. So all in all sharper execution resulting in consistency of performance and getting both products, channel and geographies into their right slots. Thank you.
Operator
Got it. So thank you very much. Now just to follow up on that, right. I mean so where do you see ROE settling? And I mean the acquisition obviously is also linked to Yields, OPEX optimization, etc. From an exit 15% ROE. Where do you see ROE also moving going ahead?
Rakesh Shinde
So as I mentioned on your second question, which is long term growth strategy on if the question still pertains on the fact of long term indications, I think high teens is where our eyes are very clearly set on return on equity.
Operator
Okay, okay, got it, got it. Except the second question for so you know, so though we witness a YOY SP function but when we look at the sequential moment it is down 15 basis point, you know, largely due to pillar cut in March, but now we also intend into further pillar cut of 10 basis point maybe in June. Right. So why do you see ultimately spread settling, right? I mean otherwise ROA will again moderate in terms of 27.
Rakesh Shinde
Thank you for your question. Thank you for your question. If you see in the full year basis we have came down 62 basis point in world cost of borrowing and which is largely stabilizing at this level. And we reached a spread of 5.2%. Basically as Manu mentioned and along with the all team, we talk about right placement of product at the right price basically so that will help us going forward. A slight improvement in the yield, placement of a product and cost of boring stabilizer at this level. We are very confident to maintain that 5% plus.
Operator
Okay, okay, okay. So my observation is, you know, with 15 basis point failure cut, you know, yields are down 20 basis points, you know, which essentially means that the book yield is actually converging towards businessman yield, which is, you know, lower as we handle. So just wanted to understand, you know, how your businessman yields will move going ahead which will ultimately take care of your blended yields.
Rakesh Shinde
Perfect. Thank you so much for articulating that clearly. I think that is well established with us. And going back to my previous answer, I would like to repeat it that there is enough headroom to place the product on risk adjusted pricing. Still. We are in an income assessment, assessed income group. Every transaction is a transaction which is unique. And hence I am confident of the fact along with my team that the right placement and the right product will help us bridge this gap.
Operator
Got it, Got it. This is very helpful,
Rakesh Shinde
Sir. Thank you. And discipline. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from Citigroup. Please proceed.
Kunal Shah
Yeah, so. So a couple of questions. On the growth side. You articulated expiration to get towards 20% plus and we are seeing the network expansion this quarter. Again, larger part of the network expansion was in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and UP, wherein we would have added like say 8 to 10 advances in its state. So would that be the strategy? Maybe in terms of expansion and we have seen almost flat branches in Maharashtra, MP and Rajasthan. Maybe hardly like 3%, maybe three branches getting added as such.
So do we see that a larger part of the expansion would be coming in this state in terms of the branches and even in terms of the incremental growth. So that’s on maybe firstly on the geography and secondly on the productivity side maybe what are the initiatives we are taking incrementally just to ensure that the productivity and maybe the disbursement per sales officer that also increase up. So if you can highlight in terms of what would be your near term strategy in terms of increasing the productivity up.
Rakesh Shinde
Thank you so much for those two specific questions. To answer your first question in geography, yes, we are continuously focused on adding branches in states like Maharashtra Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, where we find a perfect balance of potential as well as risk which we are ready to underwrite. So that’s a balance to look at. So we will continue doing that. And the second question of productivity, I’d like to answer that in a fourth approach of two points. The first is, is the RO enabled and understands what to source sources first time right is assessed based on our risk adjustment assessment and then any flow through which is from login to sanction, sanction to disbursement.
Those handover gaps at efficiency levels today can be moved up 15, 20% by concentrating on every branch productivity end to end and not purely looking at a bucket which is only either login or an end result of disbursement. Secondly, it is important for us to rebuild the muscle which is that I mentioned in the previous question about channel management. Where is this sourcing coming from into the funnel and hence in a branch network where there is 1012 years of experience available for local market expertise.
The muscle of direct business is a focus that all of us together as management team are going to continuously work upon which reduces dependency or if I can say it, it kind of gives more control on consistency of what comes in and hence what goes out. So those two would be my specific answers to these questions.
Kunal Shah
So in terms of indirect sourcing, would we want to take that proportion up or maybe still the focus will be more on direct sourcing as you mentioned, since we have the control out there.
Rakesh Shinde
I’ll answer that by saying and I’ll give you an analogy on say for example Rajasthan being our primary state. When we say that we are investing in other state does not mean I’m disinvesting in Rajasthan. And, and similarly when I look at and the team looks at channel management, it does not mean we degrow some channel. It’s about rebuilding muscle into channels where we have direct control. So it’s largely about being very clear about focusing on direct and getting that muscle built up. Again, indirect continues the way it continues.
It’s an important part of the ecosystem. We value that part of the ecosystem. We just want to continue building on our own strengths which is the direct sourcing through channels like csc, develop our digital avenues, which is the website, our own app which has a referral program. So it’s a step by step continual journey. But yes, I would pause the answer there for further questions.
Kunal Shah
Sure. And one last one with respect to yield. So you also indicated in terms of risk adjustment pricing to be optimized. So have you started increasing yields in any of the product segments, any of the particular profile, how we are looking at it and when would that journey start in terms of the yield optimization? Has it been rolled out on say, a pilot basis and when do we see the full fledged rollout of that happening?
Rakesh Shinde
As we speak. There is no better way to start a good deed than today. So it has already started in the financial year. As I mentioned, it’s a progressive journey, but we have the expertise of underwriting risk very well. You’ve seen in the last many years that the quality of the book is pristine and hence our ability to build that muscle on risk adjusted pricing across 435 branches is a journey which is already on its way. It’s not something which has to be taught very differently. It’s just about those boundary cases which need to be looked at, paused and focused to be caught on to back to the core area that you serve.
It’s always the distraction of a business which becomes the attraction. And that is what me and my team is going to kind of. We don’t want to be distracted by attraction. We have core strengths, we have to deepen them.
Kunal Shah
Got it. Thanks. Thanks. And all the rest. Yeah.
Rakesh Shinde
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Abhijit Devriwal from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead. Thank you. Just one question and maybe just trying to paraphrase what some of my friends earlier in this call have asked. If you look at the last two years, we were growing below 20%. So if you could first articulate where was the problem when peers with larger balance sheets were able to grow upwards of 20%, why were we not able to grow? Was it an institution problem? Was it a competition problem?
That is the first thing I wanted to understand. You have articulated about product placement geography. So if you could add some nuances around it in terms of channel, are we going to do more of BSA sourcing going forward? When you speak about geography, what are the plans to maybe add more states in southern India? If you could just start with that.
Rakesh Shinde
Sure. I’ll take the two questions one by one. The first is your question about the past. You know, every human being, including me, becomes wiser in hindsight. So I would start answering by saying at every point in time. And my predecessors and the management team have done their best in those times. Times are different, variables are different. Looking progressively ahead on growth. My response would go back to the earlier two questions that we are focused on not only looking at sustainable growth, we are also investing continually in geographies like South Gujarat Maharashtra up where we see potential balanced with quality of the book.
So my answer very clearly remains this is a vastly untapped market. Growth rates are there. We have to make sure that we assess it right, price it right for our growth. On the second question of sourcing, largely between direct and indirect sourcing, as I mentioned earlier, direct sourcing has always been the branch driven model and it has been our strength. We are attempting very quickly to rebuild. You don’t forget cycling, even if you pick it up after many years. So it’s a strength that we have and we are just going to polish it and double down on it.
The second is it’s not about reducing channel partners. Channel partners are an important source of the ecosystem. We value them. We continue doing that. As I mentioned, if there are, if there ever have been, when I look at hindsighting, if there are cases which are external to boundaries, cases which don’t suit our NIM profile, we will try and make sure that we are not attracted by distraction. I hope I answered your question and I’m happy to have the question again.
Operator
Yes, yes, that answering the question, just one last thing, product at the right price. And maybe earlier in the call we also said that there will be an effort to improve the yields at which we operate. Just trying to understand Ava’s, for at least the whole of its listed history has been a franchise which has been very strong on asset quality. Credit costs have remained benign. Are we now planning to move move to a slightly different customer segment or a product segment? Which would mean while the risk adjusted yields go up or the yields go up commensurately, the risks also go up.
And at the same time, I mean we might see credit costs now why I asked you this in your press release. I remember reading that we still continue to guide for a less than 25 basis points in credit cost. Wherever we talk about a yield increase, there is a commensurate increase in risk as well. So just trying to understand the trade off.
Rakesh Shinde
I’m very thankful to you for having picked this question. It gives me and my team a big opportunity to vehemently assertively mention that increase of yield by no manner suggests increase of risk. I will repeat that increase of yield by no standards equals mathematically to increase of risk. We take pride in the fact that our micro market knowledge is a muscle exceptionally built over time. We continue to be very vigilant about it. We are not overconfident, but we are confident in the fact that our placement pricing based on every individual case has scope of improvement and We’ve already started that in practice and are seeing some early results.
Having said that, this is a journey. Nothing changes overnight. Overnight always has problems of breakage or the engine jamming. It’s a journey. But yes, answering the question once again we are not going to get into more riskier segments. We continue to maintain our guidance on credit costs.
Operator
This answers my question. Thank you very much and I wish you and the team awash the very best. Thank you.
Rakesh Shinde
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Gaurav Khandelwal from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Operator
Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions. I’ve got a couple of those. First one is a follow up on the yield part. So 20 basis points decline in yields in fourth quarter, 15 basis points on back of the PLR cut. But can I also understand the competitive dynamics in that situation? Is it largely a function of the other part of the yields declining because of competition being too high? That’s one. And the other part of this question is are you seeing some of the bigger HFCs now trying to enter into some of the ticket sizes zip codes that you operate in primarily also because they are being pushed out from the prime mortgage side so they wanting to come into your zip code.
Any thoughts around that please?
Rakesh Shinde
I think quarter four quarter four the number which you are referring has an impact of the reduced basis point PLR which is effective on the 1st of March so you can see a large impact. What we are referencing the number is on account of that basically and rest obviously this Jason quarter is a good number growth quarter basically where definitely competition comes in this quarter because everybody in competition want to underwrite maximum business in that quarter. We also fall in the same category but if we see larger picture for the full year basis or coming year we are deep market presence and we don’t see a competition which has let’s say impact on yield placement.
It’s more largely as Manu said we have to be conscious while underwriting the case to have a right placement of yield on that asset.
Operator
Got it. Thank you. And my other question is on your opex if I look at cost to assets or costs to aum in last three years that had been declining but FY26 it’s moved up again year on year. Where do we see this settle? I understand you are still investing in some of the new states and there’s some branch expansion but on the steady state where do we see this number settling? And also could you highlight some of the use cases on tech led efficiencies that you’ve been talking about.
Rakesh Shinde
Yeah. Yes, we agree with you. Our OPEX efficiency in 2 year continuously we show an improvement. This year we had higher OPEX than the last year. Has two factors basically largely we have invested in the branch expansion which has led to higher manpower because we are firmly believed that we have to invest in the branch expansion which will give us a better growth momentum than what we have done in the past. So we have invested there basically and those branches will start to give the result in the next full year, full year basis.
And apart from that then CVC came and we brought a long term retention plan of a new ESOP and PSOP scheme scale basically which has also given us some extra cost in the last full year basis. And secondly thirdly what we thought of an asset growth for which we invested, we have missed that growth during that year. Basically that has also impacted because denominator is not there. What we thought of basically invested in the branch expense and fully investment. We are hopeful, we are confident along with the entire team and Manu is also on the board now.
So we hope we will grow feedback in the next year that will bring down our OPEX to AM ratio and we maintain that once we reach a double size of the balance sheet it will be somewhere 2.75 opex to Asian ratio.
Operator
Got it. Thank
Rakesh Shinde
You. Those were all my questions. Thank you and good luck. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Raghav from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Rakesh Shinde
Hi, good evening and thanks for the opportunity. I have a few questions. One, when I look at your number
Operator
Of loans disbursed data, right? That’s disbursement value divided by the disbursement ticket size for full year and even for the last three quarters which is cumulative of Q2, Q3, Q4. Because I think you had some problems in Q1, the volumes have not exactly grown on a full year basis. The total number of loans are flat and in home loans, in fact you’ve declined on a yoy basis in terms of funding. What are you doing to improve that? Because I see that your employee base has expanded, your branch network has expanded and still the volumes are down.
I just want to get some hints.
Rakesh Shinde
Thanks for that observation. It is very clear to us that this is an area of immediate attention for all of us on which as we laid down our FY27 plans, we’ve taken numbers and April has been for us quite effective. There is also a slight change in the sense that realization of an instrument in the customer’s banking Account is now the order of the day rather than the previous regime of where demand drops used to be cut. Some of these have now settled down very well and hence we see that progressively the investments having been done in both people as well as branches along with our technology efforts, as I mentioned in the call earlier, sharper execution focus should start sweating these assets out and productivity per person as well as revenue per person deployed on the field is going to be a matrix that we will track hawkishly ourselves against as we move quarter to quarter.
Operator
Understood. So you know as you’re saying that your volumes should increase and volume either per person or on basis should increase, ideally that should lead to better cost absorption, right? From a unit cost economics point of view,
Rakesh Shinde
Yes.
Operator
So then you know, what are you guiding for in terms of OPEX to assets or OPEX to A1 whichever way you want to guide for. Sorry if I’ve missed that guidance, but generally, you know, what kind of levels do you see yourself achieving there? Not just for FY27 but you know, on a steady state basis. Can it go below 3%?
Rakesh Shinde
I think two to three year platform, yes, we are shooting for something below 3%. However as I mentioned, it’s a journey and this journey both in terms of market as well as either tailwinds or headwinds will have some nuances quarter to quarter
Operator
And would you also be or how do you think about your ticket size strategy or ticket size segment? Because say when I look at other mortgage loans, which is essentially all the non home loans where the ticket size has increased by substantially quarter on quarter, even on a year on year basis. So how are you thinking about your ticket size strategy going ahead?
Rakesh Shinde
So from a strategic perspective, I don’t think we are changing our customer segment or geographical segment by anything including I am repeating at the cost of repetitive our credit understanding and credit cost guidance. ETFs both tactically and strategically ideally should be moving only from an infrastructure. The productivity lever is to be applied on number of customers coming in and growth there. The advantage of the ATH should just flow into the P and L. That’s not. That’s a consequence, not a strategy.
Operator
Understood. Very clear. Just one more thing. Why are your overall repayment rates higher or even though you’re your DT out rate has declined, why is that happening?
Rakesh Shinde
Sorry, I missed a question. Please if you could
Operator
Repeat. I’m asking when I look at your calculated repayment rate on an overall basis almost 20% versus say 17.5% in Q4 of last year and 16.5% in Q3,
Rakesh Shinde
Even
Operator
Though your BP outlay has declined, why have the repayment rates gone up?
Rakesh Shinde
Yes. Thanks. You see this has three components. Basically one important component is which we keep monitoring month after month balance transfer to the let’s say peer group which is less than. We have a guidance as a management team. We want to keep control at less than 6. This year also we have closed 5.5% portfolio basis. No doubt customers sometimes they get extra money they pay back the part closure or let’s say extra emi they pay only large on that account. We have slightly higher repayment during this year.
Otherwise balance transfer to VT very much in control which is less than 6%. Very precise for this year 5.5%.
Operator
Understood. So essentially it’s just customer prepayment. Yeah. Based on that
Rakesh Shinde
Because customer can get extra money that they want to pay more access more EMIs or part payments which we accept.
Kunal Shah
Okay. Thank you doctor. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Before we move to the next question a reminder to the participants to ask a question you may press star and one next question is from the line of Sripal Doshi from Equira Securities. Please go ahead.
Rakesh Shinde
Hi sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. My first question is on technology and digital platform
Operator
That we have developed over the years. So do you feel that there is further investment required on that to make it more aligned with the industry requirement and also to bring down debt and then also smoothen the overall functioning.
Rakesh Shinde
Now we have done I think a good investment in the sales force as well as the life cycle management Oracle Flexq then we have best in class Oracle ERP system with the fusion all I think most of the capitalization has been done. We are not seeing any further any further investment in the entire module. Yes one of the collections here one of the best and we see in last so many years when they passed due and as well as. But we want to be have a more technology driven collection which will bring down our one per unit cost down.
So we had some investing we do in the collection software but which is a. Which is not so material amount. Which is not so material. Which is not so material. Which is not a material amount. Yes we what have you invested? It will need some some small investment every year like AI Gen AI need to look at the sharpen our underwriting acquisitions collections and and which will save us another course also basically which you have invested here some amount that will save other our OPEX manpower OPEX manpower efficiency will bring the saving in the company
Operator
So nothing major assets on the tech and digital side Majority of our OPEX will be towards a branch expansion and network expansion broadly. Right,
Kunal Shah
Yes, yes,
Operator
Got it. The second question was pertaining to how are you seeing the ground trends in terms of business momentum as well as bounce rates, rates delinquency in the early part of 1Q and how are we sort of planning or positioning ourselves to face the unfolding situation because the Middle east
Rakesh Shinde
War and the impact of inflation going ahead for our customers broadly.
Operator
Yeah, thank you. I am Ashutosh, I’ll answer this question. Yeah. We are also keeping very close watch on what is happening on, on the quality or maybe market trends based on this Middle east war. But thankfully as of now we are not seeing any kind of a trend either in bouncing or in our collections and meaning in number of. In fact bouncing in the month of April was less than the previous month and this year April is better than the previous year April. So. And at the same time we are also keeping an eye on ground feedback that if some checks is getting bounced and if it is from a profile where we envisage that it might have been affected because of the this war or anything and the reason or a PTP or the reason for the delay or reason for, you know, if it is linked with the macroeconomic challenges.
But so far we have not seen anything. Of course we are keeping an eye very close watch because ultimately all of us are going to get affected if the petrol prices have gone up by 10 rupees or something. So it is going to get affected. But as of now, thankfully nothing has happened.
Rakesh Shinde
Any profiles that we have filtered which we will let’s say not do or maybe do more checks in certain profiles. Any customer profile that you have filtered, keeping in mind the current situation.
Operator
Yeah, it is. But see it is as your guess as mine. So the immediate visibility comes to travel tools and travels and no hotel, restaurants and maybe even so anything which is related to energy related things are directly getting affected. But one thing I can tell you that we are in the profiles which we are financing if you the profiles we are not financing which are directly affected like chemical factory or anything who is into energy. Our clients are the tier two kind of a person who are getting affected will get affected.
As of now not. But yes, we have kept some Y6 profile which are as per our general guess might get affected and we are keeping track on their bouncing one plus or whatever. So that is what we’ve been doing as of now.
Rakesh Shinde
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah, just to add it’s a very, very well diversified book over a period of time and hence that’s the, you know, strength of the retail business. There’s no concentration risk at all. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for answering my question. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take this as the last question for the day. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
Rakesh Shinde
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as we conclude today’s earnings call, I would like to sincerely thank each one of you for your time, continued engagement and support. The progress we have made reflects the strong execution by our team, the trust of our shareholders and the confidence of our customers place on us. I must also thank our regulators, nhp, for always being with us, guiding us, strengthening us as we progress into the growth journey. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the opportunities in front of us.
With our focus on disciplined growth, prudent risk management and customer first credit led approach, we find ourselves well positioned to deliver sustainable growth and consistent long term value for our shareholders. Should you have any other questions or require additional information, please feel free to reach out to Rakesh Shinde, our head of investor relationships. Thank you once again for your continued trust and partnership. Thank you and have a very good day ahead.
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. On behalf of Awaas Financiers Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.