Aditya Birla Sun Life Amc Ltd (NSE: ABSLAMC) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 23, 2026
Corporate Participants:
A. Balasubramanian — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Pradeep Sharma — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Meghna Luthra — Analyst
Mohit Mangal — Analyst
Dipanjan Ghosh — Analyst
Swarnabha Mukherjee — Analyst
Harshit Toshniwal — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 FY26 Earnings Conference Call of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, hosted by InCred Equities. 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. [Operator Instructions]
I now hand the conference over to Ms. Meghna Luthra from InCred Equities. Thank you. And over to you.
Meghna Luthra — Analyst
Thank you, Rutuja. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of InCred Equities, I welcome you all to Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC’s Fourth Quarter and Full Year FY26 Ended Earnings Conference Call. We have along with us Mr. A. Balasubramanian, MD and CEO; and Mr. Pradeep Sharma, CFO. We are thankful to the management for allowing us the opportunity to host them.
I would now like to hand it over to Bala sir for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
A. Balasubramanian — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Thank you, Meghna. And good evening to everyone and thank you for joining our Q4 FY26 Investors Call. And I hope you all had the opportunity to read through the earnings presentation that’s available in both the stock exchanges and our company website. Let me begin by sharing our perspective on the current macroeconomic environment, followed by update on the quarter ending FY26 for our Mutual Fund business.
The ongoing conflict, as is known, in West Asia and the view of global uncertainty, fundamentally changed the world order and surging energy prices have changed the global macro perspective and are posing challenges for global economic growth. For India, there is disruptions in the Asian market due to the geopolitical risk, has driven energy costs higher and depreciated to the Indian rupee versus US dollar which continues to remain a risk in the very short term. The risk-off sentiment has prompted FII’s outflow and broad-based equity market corrections across emerging markets [Phonetic] as a result of that.
The IMF now projects global growth to moderate to 3.1% in 2026, down from 3.4% in 2025, with the headline inflation expected to rise modestly. The peak of tariff-related uncertainty is behind us and potential productivity gains from AI provide a meaningful structural tailwind over the medium term. India has demonstrated commendable resilience through this period. Domestic growth momentum remains fundamentally healthy and expect the GDP growth to be about 6.75% for the year, preserving India’s position as the fastest-growing major economy. CPI inflation is expected to rise modestly. However, it remains at a comfortable position within RBI tolerance band with subdued core inflation and healthy food stocks providing additional buffers. And India’s growth outlook continues to remain — continues to be underpinned by strong domestic demand, improving investment activity, a supportive monetary policy stance and healthy bank and corporate balance sheet.
Turning to equity market, the last quarter witnessed a sharp transition from optimism to caution with market correcting from near-record highs, driven by persistent FII outflows and global risk-off sentiment driving crude prices. Encouragingly, sustained participation from domestic mutual funds and retail investors cushion the decline, underscoring the growing maturity of our domestic liquidity and reinforcing their disciplined long-term investing and trusted guidance have never been more valuable.
Coming to an update on the mutual fund industry, the quarterly average AUM for the industry as a whole stood at INR81.5 lakh crore as of March 2026, compared to INR67.42 lakh crore as of 31st March, 2025, registering a year-on-year growth of 21%. The industry recorded its highest ever SIP contribution, approximately INR2,000 crores for March ’26, representing year-on-year growth of 24%. Total mutual fund folio stood at approximately INR29 crores as of March 2026. During Q4 FY26, the industry saw a total NFO collection, approximately INR11,200 crores across the equity and debt funds with the equity collection driven by predominantly Flexi Cap Fund, Multi-Asset Allocation Fund and Small and Mid-Cap Fund.
And despite equity market volatility, industry witnessed continuous flows into various schemes, highlighting sustained investors confidence, the long-term growth potential of Indian [Phonetic] equities. Individual average AUM for March 2026 stood at INR47.4 lakh crore, contributing to about 60% of the total industry size. And B-30 cities with an average AUM of INR14.40 lakh [Phonetic] crore accounted for 18% of the total AUM, growing by 19% year-on-year.
Coming to the ABSLAMC performance highlights, at the ABSLAMC, our overall average AUM, including alternate assets, now stands at INR4.74 lakh crore, growing with 17% year-on-year. Our mutual fund quarterly average AUM stood at INR4.36 lakh crore, representing 14% year-on-year increase. With this, our equity mutual fund quarterly average AUM stands at approximately INR1.97 lakh crore, growing by 17% year-on-year.
Our SIP contribution for March ’26 has seen reasonably good pickup to INR10,204 crores, growing by 11% quarter-on-quarter, where we closed about INR1,080 crores, INR1,204 crores, supported by INR40 lakh contribution coming from SIP account. Building on this momentum, we are at the forefront of driving our SIP adoption through our Sabse Important Plan campaign, reinforcing the value of investing through the market cycles and systematically, our ambition at ABSLAMC is to reach every household in India, making Har Ghar Me SIP as a reality, we’re working in that direction which will help us in improving SIP number further.
Total investors folio for March 2026 stood at INR1.1 crore. With the new SIP registration for the quarter, approximately 6 lakhs, growing by 16% on a quarter-on-quarter basis is another area where we have shown improvement in the current quarter. The SIP registration is actually higher than the previous quarter, reflecting on both the — the number of registrations happening in the quarter. Over the last year, we at ABSLAMC have made meaningful investment in strengthening the investment theme on people and sharpening our portfolio-consuming processes and investment framework — reinvented investment framework in order to deliver consistent investment [Phonetic] performance. This, in fact, resulted in a sustained improvement in our investment performance in equity, directly translating to growing investors’ confidence and distributors confidence and consistent flows across our core funds offering. In fact, in the current quarter, we continue to see momentum coming in our flows in our Flexi Cap Fund, Balanced Advantage Fund, Multi-Asset Allocation Fund, Small and Mid-Cap Fund, GenNext Fund and Multi-Cap Funds. Market expansion has always been a key priority for us and continue to deepen our presence across our emerging markets. And today we are present in about 19,000 PIN codes spanning across the country, representing our commitment to bring in quality investment solutions to every corner of India.
Building on this foundation, we plan to add several new locations in FY27, further expanding our geographic footprint. In fact, during the current quarter, we have seen our retail productivity improving across all markets. This is reflecting on number of distributors getting added to our fund and the number of distributors getting activated across different markets in order to further drive our business.
We have enhanced our technology platform and digital capabilities with a clear focus on delivering a seamless experience, including the launch of our new investor app, is reinforcing our commitment to simple, transparent and accessible investing. We also launched the new Partner App with enhanced capabilities and we remain focused on leveraging technology to drive smarter wealth creation and long-term value to our investors. In fact, in our digital platform we added some of the features which will actually bring in the number of customer additions and having customers multi-folios and so on and so forth, and also improve the service standards in our app, which in fact help us in terms of adding more customer base in the time to come.
Moving to our alternate business, the PMS and AIF category, has maintained a strong momentum, complemented by a comprehensive suite of trade offerings. Our PMS and AIF assets grew significantly from INR11,300 crores to INR30,000 crores which is again growth over three times. It is also supported by ABSLAMC manager driven [Phonetic] last year. And as you all know, Sameer Narayan who is our PMS Head, managing the investments as Head of Investment, now he’s taking additional responsibility of our offshore fund management, along with building the business and expanding our global investment capability as Head of Offshore Business, both on money management, as well as on building the business as AIF [Phonetic] and PMS.
With his deep commitment and passion, I’m sure these two asset classes will start building some more outcome as time to come. We’ll continue to raise funds in some of the funds that we’ve launched last year. India ESG based out of GIFT City, ABSL Flexi Cap Fund for inward remittance at GIFT City and Global Bluechip Fund which again created, which has given a huge experience for investors to provide globally competitive solution to our investors. We plan to launch ABSL Global Emerging Market Fund very soon through the GIFT City. Karan Dave who was part of our AB Capital Talent Pool, he has now taken charge of debt AI platform in order to provide fixed income, credit oriented — performance [Phonetic] credit-oriented fund, by releasing credit share with a focus on scaling our offerings in this space. The ESIC mandate accounted for about INR20,000 crores as of March 2026, while PMS and AIF, excluding ESIC mandate, registered year-on-year growth of about 14%, reflecting healthy underlying momentum, backed by strong performance coming from our PMS business as well.
On the EPFO mandate, which last quarter I mentioned about — we won the equity mandate. This quarter we signed the agreement — formal agreement we signed, and now we are ready operationally to get the inflows after fulfilling few other formalities in the next few days. I’m sure in the current quarter we’ll get to an [Phonetic] EPFO money in the fixed income space as per the mandate given to us for the next five years. We are currently in the fundraising plan in the Special Opportunities Fund Series II and Structured Opportunities Fund in Series II and Money Managers Fund in the AIF space, along with ABSL India Select Sector Fund in the equity space.
On the real estate front, our AUM grew approximately about INR740 crores, registering 14% year-on-year growth. We currently have a fundraising underway for Aditya Birla Real Estate Credit Opportunities Fund – Series II, and focus on senior secured lending through post-approval brownfield real estate projects across Tier 1 cities. In our passive business, we continue to witness significant momentum with our quarterly average AUM crossing the INR40,000 crores mark to stand at INR41,200 crores in Q4 FY26, representing year-on-year growth of 25% and our customer base expanding by about 16.91 lakh crore.
ETF quarterly average AUM grew by about 68% year-on-year, significantly outpacing the industry ETF growth of about 40%. Our passive product suite now comprise 54 distinct offerings across equity, fixed income, commodities and multi-asset solutions designed to address the diverse investment needs of our investors. During the quarter, we launched two new products in the passive segment. This is the ABSL MSCI India ETF Fund. This will be based out of GIFT City, feeding into our fund in India and hopefully, we’ll get about — flows from FII investors in this fund and for which you launched this fund.
The same day we also launched BSE Top 10 Banks ETF, wherein we have started seeing some amount of flow of investments, especially for those who are — dedicated investment they make in the Financial Service Index. We are happy to announce that we have incorporated our wholly owned subsidiary, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC International IFSC Limited at GIFT City, and I have personally obtained the retail license to further strengthen our presence there. The earlier presence in GIFT City was in the form of a branch, as an external arm of ABSLAMC. Now, it is became 100% wholly owned subsidiary company. With this, we will be able to launch product for inward remittance and outward remittance for as small as a ticket size of about $3,000, even as low as $2,000.
We launched our SIF vertical under the Apex SIF brand with our first offering, the Apex SIF Hybrid Long-Short Fund. With the evolving investor needs and the rapid expansion of India’s effluent segment, this category represents significant growth lever for us. Building on this momentum, we plan to introduce a pipeline of new offerings, as guided by SEBI new circular in the near term to further strengthen and scale this platform. In line with this, we have further enhanced our investment capability with addition of two specialists, bringing deep expertise in long-short as well as derivative-based strategy using options and futures markets.
Moving to the financial numbers, Q4 FY26 revenue from operation is at INR458 crores as compared to INR429 crores in Q4 FY25. Our Q4 FY26 operating profit was about INR252 crores as compared to INR233 crores. Our Q4 FY26 profit after tax was INR187 crores as compared to INR228 crores. This is actually on account of increase in — reduction in other income due to the mark to market actions for the quarter.
Revenue from operations for the full year FY26 was at INR1,845 crores as against INR1,685 crores. FY26 operating profit was at INR1,051 crores as compared to INR944 crores. FY26 profit after tax is at INR975 crores as compared to INR931 crores in FY25. We are pleased to announce the Board has proposed a dividend of 25.5% [Phonetic] per share, is somewhat equivalent to about 75% of profit distributions for the current quarter — for the full year.
With this, I would like to open the floor for any questions. I’ll be joined by Pradeep Sharma to take any other question that you may have.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Mohit Mangal from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead.
Mohit Mangal
Yeah. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. So, my first question is on the regulatory impact. So, from the 1st of April we see that there would be a 5 basis impact on the equity AUM. So, how do you intend to mitigate the impact and what would be the net impact on our books?
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah, I think this is the broad impact generally post the regulatory changes, is in the range of about 3 to 4 basis points roughly. But however, given the fact that the way the industry has been operating, the way we are operating, we will try and do the structures in such a manner that it does have least impact as far as the P&L concerns, given the fact that the reduction is actually quite marginal. And I’m suitably making these structures that we have both on the commission structures and other expenses. Keeping all those things in mind, we’ll try and make it neutral to everyone and win-win for the overall business without having any kind of deep impact, either for the distribution community or for our AMC business.
Mohit Mangal
Okay. So you intend to pass on to the distributors basically and there’ll be like 1 or 2 basis points impact. That is what you intend to say?
A. Balasubramanian
No, we’ve not quantified any kind of exact number. I think, we’ll, of course, roll it out the current quarter. And as of now the assumption that we are making as far as the AMC impact concerns will be very marginal. We would look at from all angles how do we maintain the overall profitability. At the same time, we also look at passing on, optimizing the entire thing. We will also of course — since it goes across the entire distribution community, we also feel even from a distributed point of view, even if it is marginally passed on impact will be the least.
Mohit Mangal
Understood. Sir, how has the flow market share versus the book market share this quarter?
A. Balasubramanian
In line with the market only. So, in terms of market share you are saying?
Mohit Mangal
Yeah, yeah, market share — flow market share versus book market share.
A. Balasubramanian
In line with the market share. Yeah.
Mohit Mangal
Okay. Okay.
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah, in line with the market share. We have seen improvement in terms of our flows. I think if we have to just give you some kind of color, one, we — actually this quarter is better than the previous quarter in terms of flow of funds coming into the funds that we have been promoting, backed by reasonable good acceptance. More and more approvals are also coming in from the banking channel. That’s something — is good news. Second is, the way we looked at it, as we also — we’ve been saying for last one year, one and a half years, we will continue to focus on reducing the fall in the market share before we start rising. That’s something again has happened in this quarter too. I think the overall reduction is a very, very marginal — very very — I think narrowed quite significantly. With improved flows, broadly I would say, we would come — it should come reasonably close to the market growth momentum very soon.
Mohit Mangal
Understood. Sir, my last question is on — few bookkeeping questions. First is what is the SIP AUM? Secondly, if you could quantify the ETF AUM. So your fixed income includes the ETF AUM. So, if you can give me the ETF AUM. And lastly the PMS and AIF revenue for financial year ’26 and Q4 financial year ’26.
A. Balasubramanian
Sure. As far as — I’ll take the second question which is the ETF equity rather than — out of INR47 crores, roughly about — is the ETF which includes gold and silver. Roughly about INR11,500 crores — roughly INR11,500 crores. And the balance is actually fixed income target maturity fund, we can call it.
As far as the other question — SIP book is about…
Pradeep Sharma
INR76,000 crores.
A. Balasubramanian
INR76,000 crores is SIP Book. With respect to revenue, overall in the — one second. Just hold on. So, as far as the PMS and this revenue, I’ll just tell you. Revenue coming from PMS and —
Pradeep Sharma
Yeah. So, revenue share from PMS and AIF alternative is around 6% on gross basis, Mohit. And on net basis, it will be around 3.5%.
Mohit Mangal
Okay, understood. Sir, just one follow-up. You said fixed AUM is INR76,000-odd crores. Last quarter it was around INR87,000 crores. So, it’s just the MTM [Phonetic] movement, right?
A. Balasubramanian
Yes, yes. It is purely MTM only. Yeah.
Mohit Mangal
Pure MTM. Okay, thank you. Wish you all the best.
Operator
Does that answer your question, Mr. Mohit?
Mohit Mangal
Yeah, yeah. Please. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Dipanjan Ghosh from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Dipanjan Ghosh
Hello. Sir, good evening. Just few questions from my side. First, you mentioned in your previous comment that your flows in the funds that you have been pushing or funds or performance is good. There has been improvement in flows quarter-on-quarter. But if I look at the overall active equities as a cohort for you and look at, let’s say, 4Q versus 3Q or 4Q versus last year 4Q, how the quarter-on-quarter and YoY look like for the entire active equity basket as a whole.
My second question is on the expense side. You mentioned in your commentary that you have — you kind of have expanded your team on the FII side. You also have ambitions to continue to scale up your alternates and PMS businesses, offshore businesses. So, when I look at the employee expense growth, how should one think of, let’s say, for the next one or two years in terms of the growth?
Finally, I have a few datakeeping questions. One is SIP flows for the quarter. The second is ESOP expense for the quarter and year. And third is the number of employees outstanding as of March 31st.
A. Balasubramanian
Sure. See, as far as the flow is concerned, Dipanjan, I think, the — last quarter also I mentioned and this quarter also the — so the way I look at it the — what you’re trying to build in addition to arbitrage fund, which is also considered as active equity, I have seen good pickup in the first half of this year in terms of our arbitrage fund. And then we have started seeing pickup coming in Flexi Cap Fund, Multi-Asset Allocation Fund, Multi-Cap Fund and the Balanced Advantage Fund. So that’s why I think we continue to see inflows. And even — we are also promoting these kind of five, six focused products. On the thematic side we continue to see flows in GenNext Fund. And now, we are seeing good pickup in the Small and Mid-Cap Fund. We are now seeing flows in Small and Mid-Cap Fund.
So that is the way we are pushing it. And third, of course, where we are also losing some assets in the early part of the year is ELSS schemes. Thanks to significant improvement that you have seen in the performance, in fact, our outflows has come down quite — though the asset as a category is not getting flows, but we had a little bit of excess outflow initially for underperformance of the schemes. That got narrowed quite significantly. This year we have seen a significant pickup. In fact, I must also share with you the number of funds we are delivered, Q1, Q2 performance in equity, now has gone almost about 85%. In fact, current quarter we have almost — insignificant portion of our funds is in the Q4. And that something is something. It’s being accepted. In fact, during the current quarter, we got our products approved, part of the banking channel which is also another piece we are working on it. Now, wherever we got one product added, now two products got added from the list of funds that I just shared to you.
So, I think each quarter-on-quarter basis, we are improving it and hopefully, this year, we will see the momentum continuing as far as the flow is concerned. That we are pushing the team for improving the productivity point of view.
Then other two questions, I’ll ask Pradeep to just give you insight.
Pradeep Sharma
Yeah. So the other one was on the employee expenses you were talking about. So basically, see, we launched a new employee ESOP scheme in Q4 which we had the impact in the current quarter and that will continue in the next year in coming quarters also. However, that impact is not that really visible in the Q4 numbers. If you see, there are — there’s not increase from Q3 to Q4, largely on account of — there was some employee-related reversal because of the performance — variable pay performance that has been offset during Q4. However, going forward, there would be an impact of around INR8 crores to INR10 crores per quarter in next year.
A. Balasubramanian
Next year.
Pradeep Sharma
Yeah, in next year. So this would be on account of ESOP and all. As far as — you said on the employee, the two new employees, I think that there should not be much impact, that is only running employee cost. And normal inflationary employee cost should be there.
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah. As far as your employee cost, in addition of the things Pradeep mentioned, I think from a team point of view, we are more or less there. Except we will add — our ETF passive gentleman left. So, we’ll be adding one or two member team to build our passive business. Of course, we have an existing team, no doubt, but to head the business we have some serious plan in order to bring in higher focus on passive growth as well. That’s something which we’ll do.
And second, of course, some people have left and therefore some people are coming in. So, largely, if I look at it from employee cost point of view, there will be a margin increase, not big time increase. Also, simultaneously, we also keep looking at optimizing the existing resources, what additional responsibility they can take. And therefore, this will remain somewhat under control.
As far as the ESOP is concerned, while you mentioned about next year’s impact will come in, in fact, I must mention, we rolled out our ESOP plan this year as well on time. That closed about INR845 price. In fact, this also boosted the confidence and motivation of our people. Almost 110 employees we covered. Therefore I would probably say that with the improvement of performance and the team also got motivated post issuance of our ESOP. And this also should add to the overall positivity for the fund.
Dipanjan Ghosh
Got it. If I can get the data points that I asked for, SIP flows for the quarter, number of employees. And yes, those are the two questions.
Pradeep Sharma
Yeah, sure. So, SIP flows are INR1,204 crores.
Dipanjan Ghosh
Sorry, I…
A. Balasubramanian
One second. Just give me a second.
Pradeep Sharma
So, INR1,208 crores is for the March. And if you see for quarter, it is INR3,600 crores. And employees are 1,615 [Phonetic] employees as of March end.
Dipanjan Ghosh
Sorry, 1,615 you said, right?
Pradeep Sharma
Yeah, 5-0.
Dipanjan Ghosh
Just one follow-up maybe. I mean, if I look at your risk here, you started with around 1,630 employees. You went up to around 1,700-plus and now you’re back to 1,650 despite the business momentum picking up. So what should — I mean, what is really getting captured in this employee count number?
Pradeep Sharma
So, we always — see, this is always there are — there will be always some ongoing vacancies at RM level et cetera, at the bottom of the pyramid, as well as we always keep on optimizing our employee strength and also keep on improving the productivity levels by way of implementing the new tech solution et cetera, et cetera. So, I think 30 to 50 [Phonetic] employees, plus-minus will keep on happening always, depending on the optimization.
A. Balasubramanian
Also — we also onboard certain segment of the business, off-roll people. Then they come under the onboard, so roughly about 80 to 100.
Dipanjan Ghosh
Got it. Thank you and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Next question is from the line of Swarnabha Mukherjee from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Swarnabha Mukherjee
Hi sir, good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity. Three questions from my side. First one, sir, on this regulatory impact, so I just wanted to understand, will we be getting some clarity on what is the full extent of the impact, because we are already in the third week of April and I mean I think — so would it be like that we will have an idea as we close April, or, see, like that optimization will continue for a few months as we move in here. So, if you could give some clarity on that.
Secondly, in terms of book [Phonetic] customers, how has the movement been during the quarter? The reason why I ask is that in the SIP slide — growth that we had seen in terms of flows, as well as new SIP registrations that is not reflecting so much in terms of the contributing SIP account. So, I just wanted to understand the dynamics there that are our existing customers opening incremental SIPs, or how is it playing out in terms of onboarding, say, new to ABSLAMC customers?
And also, if you could help us understand that in terms of this incremental SIP flow growth that has happened during this quarter, which channels are providing that. Is this coming from online channel or any other kind of distribution partners who we have added? If you could give some color on that.
And lastly, sir, also if you could share the yields by asset class that would be great. Yeah.
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah. So as far as the — as far as your first question is concerned with respect to the optimization, I think — see, this is after a multiple round of discussions, when the first circular came and the final circulars came. All of you would have known and as an industry we worked with SEBI and brought it to a scenario where it will have least impact, including the broking firm with whom we deal with on the equity side. In fact, I was personally involved in ensuring that — rather not ensuring, working with the other team members of the industry to see to it that it has least impact. So that’s at a broader approach in which we did. And whatever the panel that has come, the way we have worked out at this point of time is from AMC profitability point of view, we will try and make it neutral if not positive.
As far as the distribution is concerned, and we are in any case in a scenario where we have always been ensuring that the distribution partner, we should work with them very closely. Therefore, we kept the commission structure in a manner, it remains somewhat attractive for them in order to grow our business. There will be — some marginal reductions could come. So, that’s the way broadly I’ll see it, without having too much impact as far as that’s concerned. The way we are currently working out is, from our profitability point of view, somewhat neutral kind of model that we are working on it. That way we are looking at building the whole plan.
And as far as the SIP is concerned, of course, we have seen some bit of cancellations this quarter. Maybe, I would say, increased cancellation during the period of volatility. It used to be somewhere in about 45% to 50%, for the industry I’m talking about. It went up to, let’s say, about 92% for the industry. In fact, our SIP cancellations were actually lower than the industry, I would say. At the same time, this normally happens. Any fiscal [Phonetic] volatile period, we do see SIP cancellation increasing, but that in my view, is not — generally is a no-worry [Phonetic] part. But SIP registrations have not come down quite significantly. SIP registration remains somewhat strong. Even our number for the quarter if I see is about 6.71 lakh as against 5.4 lakh in the previous quarter, is the trend that we see. So therefore, this is something one good — big achievement, I would say, as an industry all have done, including ourselves, making — SIPs have not shifted to the market volatility. In fact, I myself was — during the volatile period keep harping on the importance of not canceling SIPs.
In fact, I came with a mantra which is called if you have an SIP, continue SIP. If you cancel SIP, start your SIP. You never invest in SIP, start SIP. We actually came out with a campaign during the period. It was also being appreciated by people during the voltage period. Giving guidance to the investors is extremely important. In fact, we are the ones [Phonetic] where all around the place in re-emphasizing the importance SIP. In fact, that has been appreciated by a lot of our partners and investors that Birla is actually batting in the front foot in promoting SIP which hopefully should help us in building our SIP. That’s one.
As far as the channel concerns, in fact, we have seen — digital of course remains the dominant component. No doubt. MFDs have seen improvement during the current quarter due to the high engagement coming from our sales team, because improvement on performance, the narratives gives them more confidence for them to actually go out in the market, not having a fear of reaching out. That something is helping our sales team to actually go out in the market, talk about with a lot of crowd that yes, we are doing well. So that is helping us in improving our contribution coming MFDs. Of course, long way to go, no doubt.
Second is product coming as part of the approved list of banking channels also is improving the contribution, both the flows and SIPs. And third, of course, is the MDA [Phonetic] channel. Before the MDA channel, our directing channels, also we are seeing an improvement in the direct team channels, both in the HNI space, as well as the PF & Trust. We also have channels coming in the institutional space. That phases also we are seeing STPs now contributions coming in. In fact, last quarter some of the even institutional customers who predominantly invest in equity as well and — equity when the market fell. So that’s the way broadly I see it.
As for the yield concern, I’ll just give it to Pradeep to give you insight.
Pradeep Sharma
So, yields in equity category are around 60 to 63 basis points. And debt side it is around 24 to 25 basis points. Liquid is around 12 to 13 basis points. ETF is around 6 basis points.
Swarnabha Mukherjee
Okay sir, understood. Thank you for the detailed answer. And yes sir, I think really great set of numbers on the SIP side. So, sir, just one follow-up if I may. In terms of the month of April, so just wanted to understand that how are we seeing the month of April now that the volatility has kind of reduced a bit and the markets have also started to show some encouraging signs. So, just wanted to understand how you are seeing incremental offtake in the month of April.
A. Balasubramanian
Sure. So, I think March quarter, I think there was also pressure on fixed income side due to the rupee volatility, as well as interest rates. Banks are under tremendous pressure to raise deposits. That did have an impact as far as the fixed income flow is concerned. In fact, post RBI giving more liquidity and the borrowing calendar is most skewed towards the short run rather than the longer run, as again bond markets have come back to normal, liquidity has come back to normal. Flows have also come back normal. In fact, as I speak, our number and all has come back more close to about 445 in terms of running number. So that’s something as an overall basis I would say. As far as equity is concerned, we did have a conference.
Normally, we have in the beginning of every year, we run a conference taking all our distribution partners to one location. We lock ourselves to talk about what we have done last year and what we intend to do next year. In fact, we got a reasonably good response coming from distributors from across the representation of India. And that’s something — got a feeling that everyone wants to actually add and accumulate during the call period rather than reducing the exposure. That’s one feeling I got. So therefore, this in my view, assuming these — about 400 distributors participate in our conference. Assuming I think that as a voice of representation of the whole community, probably we should see the flows not getting impacted, given the fact market also has come back quite nicely.
From our side, we are seeing improved contribution, though I don’t want — this is too early for me to give the number, but I’m seeing an improved traction. In fact, I must mention post our conference in Hyderabad, we had last week, entire my sales force have become extremely confident in order to improve their own productivity in every market in which they operate [Phonetic]. So, that’s the way I will put it.
Swarnabha Mukherjee
Understood sir. This is all very helpful. Thank you so much sir. And all the best for FY27.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of HT from Premji Invest. Please go ahead.
Harshit Toshniwal
Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, you are. Yes, you’re
Mohit Mangal
Audible. Yeah. Hi
Harshit Toshniwal
Hi, sir. Harshit here. Sir, just wanted to — I joined a bit late. Maybe you covered it. But what was the equity which you mentioned, sir — equity coming to you [Phonetic]?
Pradeep Sharma
So equity yields were 60 to 63 basis points and that, it was 24, 25 basis points. Liquid 12 to 13 basis points.
Harshit Toshniwal
Okay. Sir, when I look at the equities, at least if I back calculate broadly, so there is a good — around 2, 3 basis point yield reduction which would have happened this quarter. So, if I take every other thing constant then probably 3 basis point will decline in the equity segment. Is it anything particular to do here?
Pradeep Sharma
No. So there’s no specific reason. I think this is the function of telescoping pricing, as well as mix of products. So both these things will have impact on this, versus if you see for last year, we had also — actually in the earlier calls, we have said — last year we had some reversal because of the regulatory changes. So if you see from last year to this year, there is a marginal drop of 2 to 3 basis points. Otherwise there is no —
Harshit Toshniwal
Sir, just on the sequential part itself and wanted to check that. IT looked like they declined.
Pradeep Sharma
Yes. Yes. So product mix here.
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah. Other than the core product there is no fall. Of course, as I mentioned about — see some of the funds are also a bit growing in size to the extent the telescoping pricing will impact the dimension [Phonetic]. But I would say that is one component of it. But otherwise, even growing our passive, will got to get added to that segment.
Harshit Toshniwal
Got it. Got it. Sir, just the other point you mentioned that the impact of the TI division [Phonetic], you would want to keep the distributor also — you would want the distributor commissions not being impacted. But — and then you said that we also want to ensure that our business is neutral in terms of the economics. But how can that — do you expect that we should take — we will be have to — taking some hit?
A. Balasubramanian
No, just to clarify that, Harshit, we did some kind of math, just back of the envelope math which we did. Let us — assuming scenario that they’re able to make it somewhat neutral or negative, say, let us assuming for the distribution partners what the impact will come. Given our current — the brokerage structure we have. So we have current — distribution structure that we have. So I would say we would be in the — I would not say too high. I’ll not say not too low as well. I think we are little above, say — maybe, I can say, compared to industry people. Therefore we felt that what the impact will come, that is assuming that 2, 3 basis points is actually — comes at the cost of — to the distribution side. Then we felt the impact is very marginal from the people who get a larger AUM versus smaller AUM.
And for us also, given the fact this has come, we also relooked at some of our cost structures. How you can improvise this? Therefore we looked at across the board how we can actually ensure that impact is less. Is also coming from the fact that as I mentioned earlier in the call that what was then the initial fear which was there, when the first circular came versus the final circular when it came, in that call also I mentioned it will be more or less neutral if not highly positive. So that — we continue to maintain that. These have to get evolved in my view. Therefore, we can’t say this exactly will work, because anyway once it is done, implemented, will come back to a normal distribution structure which normally we keep about 65%, 70% is the distribution structure. Will come back to the model. Therefore, we cannot get confused in terms of who will get the impact and who will be benefiting. We are — ultimately it will come back to the distribution model.
Harshit Toshniwal
Understood sir. Sir, one last question. If I look at our — my net equity flows across all the active funds, basically, I think last year, if I assume that in the interim we had some higher redemptions from the older scheme, then we had some higher redemptions in the online basically. So just — so are we — because of the performance now being much more stable and a larger track record of stable performance, is it fair to assume that right now we are at a stage that on a monthly basis we are getting INR250 crore, INR300 crore of net inflows as a bare minimum right now? Just trying to understand there have we reached a point that net of redemption we are right now at a point that INR250 crore, INR300 crore monthly inflows are more predictable inflows which we can get every month.
A. Balasubramanian
Yes, I think that trend is there, Harshit. I think, clearly, you articulated nicely in terms of how we are shaping up. In fact — so I do normally say. Last year our flows actually is two times higher than the previous year flow, in terms of flows. So that’s again nothing but effort that we are doing it. So as I mentioned in my opening remark, whatever steps we have to take in order to bring in the talent side, where we have to improvise it and responsibilities changing and so on so forth, each of the areas, the focus that we brought in, all of them have started paying — even it takes some time for people to get adjusted and start delivering. In fact, when I mentioned about 85% of the funds today is in Q1, Q2. These all, I think, is the outcome of what we see. When the product is coming for approved list is also the function of how — now is coming in the radar there is the competition, so on and so forth. I think we are going in the right direction, I would say.
Harshit Toshniwal
So, sir, it’s INR200 crore, INR300 crore number which we have already now at a stage there, now that is the base minimum monthly flows we are there at. Or do you think that still we are not at INR250 crore, INR300 crore. It’s still maybe few months we get it, but it’s not that number which we have reached on a more steady state basis as of now.
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah, I would probably say, the number will be much higher than what you are indicating. So, I don’t want to say it right now, but I would — we would probably push for higher than these numbers.
Harshit Toshniwal
Understood. Understood, sir. This is helpful. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. The next — sorry. The next question is from the line of Meghna Luthra from InCred Equities. Please go ahead.
Meghna Luthra
Yeah. Hi. Thank you, sir. Just one question is, sir, you mentioned on the banking front we are — we’ve got some approval for some products. So can you give some more color on that? And how do we see the strategy in the banking channel changing? I understand it’s still a small proportion of the channel mix [Phonetic].
A. Balasubramanian
Sure, sure. See, I think the way we look at our banking channel is who are the large key partners for Aditya Birla Sun Mutual Fund. It’s basically starting from HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank, StanChart Bank and the others smaller banks we can say, IDFC Bank and others. Bank of Baroda has large distributors. While we used to always be present. But I think each one have to generate in terms of volume coming in and that we are seeing it across each of the channels.
Second is like HDFC Bank, they have tightened their product recommendation after the 2019 financial market crisis. So they don’t promote more than three or four products in part of the list. In fact, I’m happy to say, two of our products is part of their recommendation list. That’s something is also helping us because our engagement is good, connectivity is good and product coming on recommendations it leads to increase inflows. That’s something we are saying. And we have seen Kotak Bank is also part of our — wealth management team and retail team of Kotak Bank do canvas [Phonetic] for us. In fact, two, three of our — two of our products are part of their recommendation list. As I understand their constraints, they cannot give more than two products per fund houses on the base of the performance selection.
I’m happy to say these are some of the products coming as part of that recommendation list, will and [Phonetic] ways of performance improvement, engagement, their own conviction and understanding of what you’re doing would deliver the desired outcome. So that’s the way we are pushing it. And this is something would help us in keeping that momentum continuing.
Meghna Luthra
Got it. Sir, on the flows part, would the banking contribution be materially different than the — specifically on the equity assets?
A. Balasubramanian
I would say materially different from the past. See, our flows had come down quite significantly from this channel because the product was not part of the recommendation list. So now with the engagement being there, that product coming as part of the recommendation would lead to actually increased flows. Of course, even I’m pushing the sales team to take full advantage of high engagement with the team, which I think the team is also doing it. On MFDs, they have the regular flows, we have deep connections. Even MFD, when we connect, we don’t look at them only as our distribution alone. We actually add — a lot of value addition we give by providing guidance and we run program called Legacy Leap. We run a program called Fulcrum in order to encourage the next generation of the distribution partners. We have long association with distribution partners for 30 years. And old generation wants to develop the next generation. In fact, we as a fund house take a lot of leads in helping the next generation to build the business. All such things we are doing it in order to ensure our traditional channel MFD channel improves while the organic channel continues to get better. And direct is something we have made an investment. Last one, one and a half years we’re making investment on direct team. But also we’re bringing more sharpness in terms of improving the number.
And then the last piece actually is the digital channel. Last year, I still remember, we got close to about 15 lakh [Phonetic] new customers added to the online channels in some of our funds like BSE Equity Fund and few others. That segment also we are pushing ourselves as to how we can increase the contribution from the digital channel as well.
So all round these kind of sharper focus. I’m sure each of the channel will start contributing better than the previous year. That should help in terms of keep building the momentum.
Meghna Luthra
Great. Great, sir. And lastly, on the product pipeline what would be on the equity side?
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah. One, of course, SIF, we have already filed. That’s something which will launch very soon. And second under the new category, we have looked at some of the merit for having life cycle kind of funds, we are looking at. We’re also looking at some of the REITs [Phonetic] and InvIT fund. If SEBI gives approval, that’s something we are looking at it. And that is as a part of the — part of our regular excise. In fact, we’re also looking at our GIFT City product. I must mention that we were the — launched in GIFT City product investing in emerging markets without knowing whether — how the emerging market is going to do. In fact, that fund has done exceedingly well, giving good experience to investors, giving about 30% — 35% dollar return on one-year basis. That’s something — it was a closer end fund. We are now looking at launching the open end fund in the GIFT City. We have — this plan also is in place.
As for the domestic concern, in addition to Life Cycle Fund what I mentioned about, I think, Fund-of-Fund, but we have not seen much growth — deserving growth, I would say. That’s something again we are pushing it.
Meghna Luthra
Got it, Got it, sir. Thank you. That’s all from my end.
A. Balasubramanian
Yeah.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand over the conference over to management for closing comments.
A. Balasubramanian
Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining for this call. And with this, we conclude our Q4 FY26. Thank you.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]