Emerald Leasing Finance & Investment Company Ltd (BSE: 538882) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 23, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Sanjay Aggarwal — Managing Director
Talin Aggarwal — Head, Business Development
Gurmeet Kaur — Chief Risk Advisor
Analysts:
Chandni Chande — Analyst
Hitesh Randhawa — Analyst
Vishal Dudhwala — Analyst
Khush Kothari — Analyst
Aman Baheti — Analyst
Ankur Aggarwal — Analyst
Snehadeep Aich — Analyst
Raj — Analyst
Aakash Jha — Analyst
Dharmesh Patel — Analyst
Arup Devi — Analyst
Bibhor Halan — Analyst
Jigar Shah — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Emerald Finance Limited Q4 FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Kirin Advisors Private Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded and is for one hour.
I now hand the conference over to Ms. Chandni. Thank you, and over to you, ma’am.
Chandni Chande — Analyst
Thank you. On behalf of Kirin Advisors, I welcome you to the conference call of Emerald Finance Limited. From management team, we have Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, Managing Director; Gurmeet Kaur, Chief Risk Advisor; and Mr. Talin Aggarwal, Head of Business Development.
Now, I hand over the call to Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal. Over to you, sir.
Sanjay Aggarwal — Managing Director
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Emerald Finance Limited earnings call for Q4 FY 25, and the full financial year FY 25. With me are Mrs. Gurmeet Kaur, who is the Chief Risk Advisor; and Mr. Talin Aggrawal, who is Head, Business Development. Together, the three of us are pleased to walk you through our financial performance and key business developments for the quarter and the whole year.
FY 25 has been a transformative year for our Company. We have continued to strengthen our position as a technology driven non-deposit taking NBFC. Our flagship early wage access product is gaining quite a good momentum and traction in the market. As of March 31, ’25, we have successfully onboarded 62 partnerships under our EWA program. This program, which is quite prevalent in US, Europe, and now getting a lot of attraction in Indonesia and Philippines, enables employees to withdraw a portion of their earned salary before their pay day. In the month of March, against the projection of INR2 crores, we disbursed INR3 crores plus in the last month of the year with an average ticket price of INR25,000. Now we are seeing our daily active users of about 30 every day. We plan to scale this number of partnerships from 60 to 250 partnerships during the current financial year.
As far as our financial performance is concerned, for the quarter four, our total income was INR6.5 crores vis-a-vis INR3.9 crores for the similar quarter in FY 24. And our net profit jumped to INR2.65 crores vis-a-vis INR1.14 crores, which is a jump of almost 132%. And for the stand-alone basis, our total income was INR4.6 crores vis-a-vis INR2.02 crores last year. And our net profit jumped to INR2.16 crores in this quarter on a stand-alone basis vis-a-vis INR0.63 crores, which is a jump of almost 246%.
On a consolidated basis, for the full year total income was INR21.63 crores vis-a-vis INR13.36 crores last year. And our net profit was INR8.89 crores vis-a-vis INR4.14 crores last year with a jump of almost 114%.
I am very happy to report in this financial year our NPAs are absolutely zero. In fact, we had very nominal NPAs in the last three years also, which was less than 0.5 in the last corresponding three years. But this year was absolutely zero, we closed the year with the zero NPA.
In terms of revenue composition, 48% comes from the consolidated balance sheet, 48% comes from interest income, and the rest comes from fee and processing fees. This season, processing fees includes three components, one is income from DSA business, second is processing fees what we charge to our business loan clients, and third is the processing fees what we charge from our customers.
In the fourth quarter we raised INR10.2 crores through preferential allotment. We issued 7.6 lakh equity shares at INR131 each. These were subscribed mainly by the promoters and Saint Capital Fund, Mauritius. Also, Mr. Rajesh Jain was the founding partner of KPMG in India and Africa, and he was the one who set up Grant Thornton in India. Also, one of the notice was Mr. Vishnu Sultania. Mr. Sultania is advisors to United Nations and is recognized among the top 100 CFOs of India. We are also pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Baya PTE Limited Singapore for invoice discounting. This initiative will help us to support suppliers of large parties such as JSW Steel, Delhivery, PVR, Rickitt & Coleman, Haldiram among others.
Looking ahead, we remain focused on expanding the EWA product and strengthening our technology infrastructure. I am very happy to inform you that our mobile app has now been approved by the Play Store and we will be shortly launching it for the listing clients. We are very optimistic what the NBFC industry as a whole, which holds about 22% of the share of the credit market and is projected to grow at 17% in FY 25.
India’s strong metronomic fundamentals, rising rural incomes and the government’s continued push for financial inclusion provide a very favorable environment for future growth. Digital lending is expected to account for 60% of the Indian tech market by 2030, and we at Emerald I think are quite well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity.
Financial Year 2025 has been a year of strategic execution, financial growth and operational excellence. With a strong foundation in place and a clear road map ahead, we are quite optimistic of this current financial ’26-’27.
I am now happy to invite questions from you all, please. Thank you once again for your time and continued support.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you all that the call is for one hour. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Hitesh Randhawa from CaGR Quest Capital. Please proceed.
Hitesh Randhawa
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Hitesh Randhawa
My question is on your sale of technology actually, in one of the previous con calls I had read that you had created your technology platform with the help of your consultants, etc. So my question is, you did say that it is entirely owned by you, but second is, what is our IT team strength actually currently?
Sanjay Aggarwal
IT team is of five people as of now.
Hitesh Randhawa
Five people as of now. Okay.
Sanjay Aggarwal
The technology has been developed in-house only.
Hitesh Randhawa
Okay. Okay. And second is, basically it covers everything, right? Can you just — would you be able to say, I know it’s an earnings call, but would you be able to just speak a bit more about the technology stack etc., that basis which we have built this particular platform? And maybe our second is, do we have our business continuity plans, etc., disaster recovery plans, etc., everything in place, I believe?
Talin Aggarwal
So, if I may take that.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, Talin.
Talin Aggarwal
Right. Hi, Hitesh. Hitesh, as sir mentioned, the entire technology has been developed in-house and we give a lot of emphasis on data security, data privacy and continuation of business, right, so in case anything happens. So we have all policies drafted, we have all the training in place. So if tomorrow something by God if something is to happen to our technology or our data, we are very well backed up to immediately resume continuity of business. We will just maybe switch our servers in case the server is the issue. So in case of any Black Swan event, we can go live with the entire data in less than 12 hours.
Hitesh Randhawa
Right, okay. And yeah, thanks for that. And it’s a kind of, in terms of when we need to kind of around EWA, actually, kind of whenever we kind of issue the funds. Actually for this particular EWA, the funds are issued against the employer or the company, basically. So, so if it is an NPA, how do we classify an NPA? Would it be against the employer or would it be against the employee?
Talin Aggarwal
Against the employee. So it’s technically a personal loan taken by the employee from us. In case of an NPA, tomorrow the employee would be liable to pay us back.
Hitesh Randhawa
Okay, okay. And then normally, what is the kind of duration that we assigned to such loans actually?
Talin Aggarwal
30 days.
Hitesh Randhawa
Maximum, it’s 30 days. Okay.
Talin Aggarwal
Correct. So any loan taken in this month would be deducted from their next payroll.
Hitesh Randhawa
Right, okay. And lastly, I just wanted your view on one of the things actually kind of, I know maybe it might be a bit too soon to talk about this but what is the probability-possibility of maybe a bank acquiring an EWA startup and kind of integrating its EWA platform into their own banking platforms or applications? The reason being that they have their data, right, they have the salary accounts with them. So what do you see around the possibility of something like that?
Talin Aggarwal
Gurmeet, would you like to take that?
Gurmeet Kaur
Yeah, Talin. Thank you. So, Hitesh, hi. So we need to be understanding the dynamics of the earned wages access lending program vis-a-vis how it does not fit into the banking parlay. So, of course, all the banks have the salary accounts of the user. And based on what are the salary credits that happen, they also have their loan programs for the salaried employees, right? And they can give them an EMI or a term loan and — on a certain rate of interest and charging some processing fees.
So, one of the key regulation or guidelines by RBI for the banks is that, they cannot give a 0% loan. So EWA as the product is in nil interest, however, we charge a fee at the time of disbursement, there is a percentage of the disbursal amount which the user takes. So there’s an APR, so this one does not fit in line with what the banks can do and what the banks cannot do, right, because it is about the cash which is into the savings account or from various customers like us. Then that money is going to get deployed into lending. And if it does not give them a rate of interest, that particular policy is not acceptable to them.
The second thing is that, this particular product is an operationally very high technology dependent product. And the ticket size is so small that the interest of the bank on running such a product is not there.
The third thing is that, most of the public sector banks in the country, they are also required to support the government’s various subsidized schemes. So they have lot of their PSL portfolio that they work on and this particular product in a vision board and from an RBI guidelines does not fit in their scheme of things.
Hitesh Randhawa
Got it. Sure. Thanks for that. Thank you very much. And lastly kind of my question is around the kind of investments that we are looking forward to make in FY 26. By this what I mean is that, we have got a target of onboarding 250 corporate clients by the end of FY 26, and I’m not sure if there are going to be any further maybe technology related spends. So basically, are we going — mostly we are going to put more, say, kind of people on the field etc., or something on those lines to get these corporates onboarded. So overall, what are the kind of investments that we are looking to make in FY 26? And if you could just quantify as per segment that, okay, sales and marketing maybe X amount, technology X amount, branch expansion maybe Y amount, something on those lines, please.
Talin Aggarwal
We wouldn’t want to be quantifying it because, again, we believe the quantification here would just limit our ability to grow, right? So as the business scales accordingly the supporting staff will scale. But we can tell you that we will be, one, investing in, as you mentioned, sales and marketing; second, in data analytics; and third, in compliance. Because as the business grows, our back end compliance needs to be much, much stronger to be able to manage. And we will need some data analytics people just to be able to analyze all the data we have been turning on a daily basis now to see where we can improve more.
Hitesh Randhawa
Right, okay. And would there be more investments into physical branches as well by any? If yes, then how many branches, etc.?
Talin Aggarwal
So as I mentioned, so us being a very technology heavy system, so we believe in centralized operations from our head office with the sales team deployed pan-India.
Hitesh Randhawa
Got it. Yeah, I got my answer. I just wanted confirmation on there. Yeah, that’s it. Thank you. I will come back in the queue.
Sanjay Aggarwal
We already recruited one person in Bombay.
Hitesh Randhawa
Right, okay. Sure. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Vishal Dudhwala from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please proceed.
Vishal Dudhwala
Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Vishal Dudhwala
Yeah. So first question was, how Emerald Finance is different from its competitor in sense of instant salary access, financial wellness tools and some HRMS integration?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah.
Gurmeet Kaur
Can you please repeat your question?
Vishal Dudhwala
Yeah. So my question was how Emerald Finance is different from its competitor in sense of instant salary access wellness, financial wellness tools and HRMS integration like how and what technology Emerald is using?
Talin Aggarwal
So if I may answer that. So in terms of how we are different from our competition. I’ll give you an entire holistic view, how we differ ourselves from the competition. So we have two things here now. So one, from distribution to technology to lending, the entire supply chain so to say is owned by us. So in this case there is no fintech or an LSP sort of a model here, right, which a lot of our competitors follow. Because there’s fintechs who do not have a lending license. But in our case, the entire supply chain is one, owned by us. That gives us immense control over the entire piece. And so, we are not dependent on any third-party to execute any of the services here.
Second, we act as a one-stop solution for all the financing needs of a corporate and of an employee through our subsidiary, shubhbank.com. So if anyone let’s say tomorrow does not want a salary advance, but they want a bigger loan, they want a home loan, they want a car loan, or a company wants a business loan, they are very easily able to facilitate that through the subsidy itself. So that essentially makes us a financial powerhouse or a financial package sort of a solution to every company we pitch to. And that network of ShubhBank has been built by almost 30 years of its existence in the market, okay, which none of our competitors is remotely that old.
Vishal Dudhwala
Okay, got your point. So basically we are using EWA as a future creditability system, right?
Talin Aggarwal
You can see we are using EWA as a customer acquisition tool.
Vishal Dudhwala
Okay. Got your point. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Khush Kothari from FEC SPIT. Please proceed.
Khush Kothari
Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Khush Kothari
Yeah. First of all, congratulations on stellar results. I wanted to understand, why are we entering into the new vertical, the builders invoice discounting partnership?
Talin Aggarwal
So, Khush, as I just mentioned, so we are essentially trying to build a synergy around financing to employers and employees. So we found that bill discounting is very lucrative and very attractive to the kind of companies are putting EWA too. So this happens to be a natural cross sell to them. So essentially, our cost of acquisition goes down dramatically because of EWA. And our underwriting is already done on the corporate because of EWA, right, so that makes it very lucrative for us to sort of cross sell these other products to them.
Khush Kothari
Understood. And one more thing which I would like to understand is, what is our penetration in these corporates where we are targeting our EWA? So we have roughly 60 partnerships now, right?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, currently, it’s almost 75.
Khush Kothari
Okay. So out of these companies, what percentage of the employees are using our products and what is the repeat rate? And are we looking to cross sell the employees some other products such as insurance or maybe something else?
Talin Aggarwal
So, on a portfolio level we see an engagement of close to 10% to 12%, and a repeater of close to 80% to 85%. So essentially, until a person doesn’t leave the corporate, they tend to use our facility, as they have already used it once. And in terms of cross sell, again, we are looking to cross sell higher ticket loans to them through ShubhBank personal loans, vehicle loans, in case anyone needs.
Khush Kothari
Got it, got it. But nothing apart from them, as in, I guess, some of our competitors are trying to, let’s say, sell mutual funds as such or some other products as well.
Talin Aggarwal
We’ll definitely explore as the opportunity comes by, we will be more than happy to explore.
Khush Kothari
Okay. All right, that’s it. If there’s anything else, I would just join the queue. Thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aman Baheti from InCred Capital. Please proceed.
Aman Baheti
Hi. Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Aman Baheti
Hi, sir. Congratulations on a great set of numbers and very, very happy to get some answers from you. So first thing on the loan book, can you just give me a breakdown of the loan book in terms of retail, MSME, gold, etc.?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Of the total, so almost from INR80 crores, INR77 crores is business loan and about INR3 crores is EWA as of now.
Aman Baheti
Okay sir. And, I mean, we have –. Sorry?
Sanjay Aggarwal
This is on 31st March.
Aman Baheti
Okay. As of 31st March, got it. And we have raised substantial amount through preference allotments, so around INR17 crores I think we have cash in our bank, in what terms are we planning to use it through the fiscal year?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Out of the INR17 crores, INR10 crores was received on 31st March, a preferential issue closed on 31st March. So, as of now, we have almost utilized about INR14 cores out of that and only INR3 cores are remaining in the bank.
Aman Baheti
Okay. So, I mean, I’m just trying to understand. So actually this EWA loan is for 30 days, so how do we manage our money rotation because the loan term is very small, right?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah. See, we put the surplus fund in the SBI Liquid Fund, there we get good 7%. It is a short term fund. SBI is the principal bankers, so whatever additional funds are there, we put in the short term liquid fund over there. There we get around 7%. But this monthly like from 30th onwards the first or second we receive back all the money which we lend during the month and that rotation keeps on going.
Talin Aggarwal
Right. And yeah, hello, sorry, if I may just add a point in there. So in the last 12 months we have actually collected a lot of transaction data, and so we essentially have the spread of when how much money is utilized in a given month. So accordingly we are able to manage our cash flows accordingly.
Aman Baheti
That’s great to hear. And one last question, any kind of guidance you want to give? I mean, we know that the target is acquiring 200 to 250 corporates this fiscal year, so in terms of disbursement any kind of targets we have for this fiscal year.
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, we are targeting about 250 corporates. I think if we are able to achieve 250, we should have about INR15 crores of disbursement by next year end, March 2026.
Aman Baheti
Okay. So in terms of our top line and bottom line, bottom line can we expect a similar growth trajectory going forward in the next couple of years?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Hopefully yes.
Aman Baheti
Okay, okay. All the best.
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, our major focus is on acquiring customers, entering into more and more partnerships and expanding our Baya partner partnership program. Once we achieve this automatically the growth will come. More than growth, our major focus is on keeping delinquencies very low. Like there’s INR3 crores in the month of March, we could have easily taken to INR4.5 crores. But we are restricting company wise elements. Even if certain let’s say company is asking for INR50 lakhs limit, we are just giving them INR25 lakhs or INR30 lakhs, we do not want to take too much exposure on a single corporate.
Aman Baheti
Got it, sir. Got it. And any large corporate in our pipeline that we wish to onboard in the next quarters?
Sanjay Aggarwal
We are talking to a lot of corporate right now. As and when it happens, we will inform you accordingly. I would not like to disclose names at this stage, please.
Aman Baheti
Okay, sir. Okay, that’s it from my side. Thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you. Bye.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Ankur Agarwal from Motozak LLP. Please proceed.
Ankur Aggarwal
Hi, sir. I wanted to know like out of our total loan portfolio how much is secured and how much is unsecured?
Sanjay Aggarwal
The entire is unsecured. Even if you consider EQA also we are taking as unsecured, but technically secured by the employer. But the entire portfolio is unsecured.
Ankur Aggarwal
The products that you cross sell there also are unsecured loan products, not secured, right?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Come again. Come again.
Ankur Aggarwal
Sir, you cross sell some products to EWA customers, right, so all the products that you sell are unsecured in nature?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, no. See, cross selling is done through our own books also plus DSAs also. In case of DSA business we do not carry any risk in our books, because in that case we only receive the income from the lender. As far as the loan books are concerned, we have not taken any property collectors from any of our clients. That way you can say technically all are secured.
Ankur Aggarwal
Okay. And sir, like the bill discounting product that you are talking about, so like I am from Jaipur and in my local market I have seen very many small NBFC started and then closed it because it’s like a little risky what I have understood. So, sir, what is your point of view on that?
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, our credit policy is very tight and most of the customers, they are anchor partners are large ones like JSW Steel, Rickitt & Coleman, Haldiram. We are not doing for small anchor partners. They are all AA-plus rated anchor partners for whom we are doing like Delhivery. And these are partners which Baya has signed. But again, we are going with each and every client before onboarding.
Gurmeet Kaur
Can I add something here, please?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, Gurmeet.
Gurmeet Kaur
Yeah. Just to address your query, this is not a vanilla bill discounting product that is available in the market that Emerald doing. Emerald has tied up with an LFC, Baya is the LFC for Emerald, and Baya has their own technology platform that facilitates the entire invoices management of the merchant with the anchor. Now, in order for Baya to impanel the merchant and the anchor they do very detailed due diligence, and we have restricted our policy to support these customers who have already been there on Baya platform and there is a proven record of the last six months of invoices being cleared on time. So, this is not like a traditional product where we are going, we are checking just the bills and how much are they getting through the anchor. So here both the merchant and the anchor are verified. There is a proven record of the invoices being cleared by those particular anchors, along with the annual agreement for the service that needs to be signed and renewed between the anchor and the merchant. So I hope this address.
Ankur Aggarwal
Okay. So in some ways you also see a guarantee from let’s say Haldiram before you start bill discounting with their vendors or something, right?
Gurmeet Kaur
No, I do not think so. Sanjay, you want to address this or I can also take it, not an issue?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, you can take away.
Gurmeet Kaur
Yeah. So, the model here is slightly different. Like I said, Baya is our loan service provider. And we have got an agreement with Baya which also covers the SLDG component which is permitted by RBI. And they also are going to be supporting us in the selection efforts because these customers, these merchants are the customer of Baya first. And they have got a verified track record on that. So the first agreement is with the LFC. Then the second agreement is going to be with the customer where the customer is evaluated based on our business loan policy which has multiple eligibility criteria and underwriting criteria, and based on which a percentage limit against the invoice that needs to be discounted is there.
Ankur Aggarwal
Okay, understood. And like I wanted to know… Sorry to interrupt Mr. Ankur. Sure. I’ll come back in the queue. Thank you.
Operator
Yeah, thank you. The next question is from the line of Snehadeep Aich, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Snehadeep Aich
Yeah. Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah. Yeah.
Snehadeep Aich
Okay. So my question is that, recently RBI has announced guidelines on gold loan, are you facing any decline on your gold loan distribution segment?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, no, not at all. See, we are presently doing for HDFC and ICICI Bank. And in fact, we have tied up with RBL also, we are going to start up with RBL shortly.
Snehadeep Aich
Okay. Okay, thank you. And apart from Chandigarh, which other state corporate is showing interest in this program, EWA program?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Come again Come again. Apart from…
Snehadeep Aich
Apart from Chandigarh, which other state corporate is showing interest in this EWA program?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No. We are doing EWA program pan-India. We have tied up with corporates as far as Mumbai, Hyderabad.
Snehadeep Aich
Okay, okay. Thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
We have got one or two corporates in Calcutta also.
Snehadeep Aich
Okay, I got it. Thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Raj, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Raj
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Hi. Good afternoon, Mr. Raj.
Raj
Yeah. My first question is regarding bill discounting, so how much margin are we expecting in bill discounting after deducting all the commission? And how much business we are expecting in that for this financial year?
Sanjay Aggarwal
We get about 17% and 50% of the processing fees net. Let’s say we lend to somebody at 18% or 19%, our share of the profit is 17% plus 50% of the processing fees.
Raj
Okay. And second question is regarding this large MNC, so we are trying to onboard large MNCs since like two, three quarters, but still there is no certainty. So like what is stopping there and how much more time will be required to onboard large MNCs?
Sanjay Aggarwal
For EWA program?
Raj
Yeah. For EWA, yes.
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, like we have started operations with a very large company, they are [Indecipherable] Pharmacy, they have about 1,500 employees. We have tied up with very large company in Bombay, we are going to start operations with them shortly.
Raj
Okay. And how much employees?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Our major target is mid-sized segment company. If you talk about Tata Steel, it’s very, very difficult to penetrate these kinds of companies because a lot of bureaucracy, it’s very difficult to penetrate these companies. Our major sweet spot is small and medium sized companies.
Raj
Okay. Ranging about…
Sanjay Aggarwal
And they have no bureaucracy also over there, and they have been performing extremely well.
Gurmeet Kaur
And also, Sanjay, if I may just add, I think we also need to understand that most of the public sector companies have got lot of facilities and programs for their employees themselves. So, this kind of a product, that may not be the most lucrative market for us.
Raj
Okay, thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aakash Jha from AJ Wealth. Please proceed.
Aakash Jha
Hi. Hello, sir. Congratulations for great set of numbers. Sir, one question, I mean, in your previous call you were planning to launch an unsecured personal loan for this EWA customer, so is there any update on that?
Talin Aggarwal
Hi, Aakash. So that is still a work in progress. We have been caught up with the bill discounting partnership and the entire product alignment in the last quarter. So we are still working out the logistics and the compliance part of the personal loan piece. So let’s see by when we should be able to launch the same. But nonetheless, anyone who needs a personal loan right now is being routed through our subsidiary. So again, there’s no loss of revenue there just because of sheer lack of product.
Aakash Jha
Okay. And…
Sanjay Aggarwal
We want to be a little careful on taking bigger exposure to the employees, right now the market is not that good.
Aakash Jha
Yeah, yeah.
Sanjay Aggarwal
[Foreign Speech] we can do it in the next quarter only. But to collect that money back, collect the entire INR100 crores back is a tough challenge. So we want to go slow and steady on a firm footing.
Aakash Jha
Right sir. Second is, I mean, I would like to understand the management reason for this EWA product. I mean, over the next three, five years how big could this business become for Emerald as a whole?
Talin Aggarwal
So if I may add into that. So, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, our revenue from this program has increased by close to 100%. And we strive to maintain that percentage going forward. So the idea here is, as we have reiterated in previous calls as well, our EWA is essentially a customer acquisition tactic we use. So we are able to, one, acquire a business corporate house; second, the employees of it. And we cross sell a lot to both these categories. And similarly in this respect we have been launching products to cater to this audience. So the idea here is that, EWA will help us quickly get these clients and then we cross sell, either we cross sell from our own book or we cross sell through the subsidiary, and that’s where the real money comes in from.
Aakash Jha
Got it. And one last one. I think last year…
Operator
Sorry to interrupt Mr. Aakash.
Aakash Jha
Okay, okay.
Operator
I request you to return to the question queue as there are several participants waiting for their turn.
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Dharmesh Patel, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Dharmesh Patel
Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Am I audible, sir?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Dharmesh Patel
Any plans to list on NSE, sir?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Come again. Come again.
Dharmesh Patel
Any plans to list on National Stock Exchange? We are listed on BSE, I think.
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, to get listed on the National Stock Exchange, a BSE listed company needs INR35 crores of net worth for three consecutive balance sheets. This year we have crossed INR35 crores. One of the major reasons for coming out with the preferential allotment is the net worth should increase INR75 crores, this year we have closed on INR75.10 crores. So ’26 and ’27, if our net worth is more than INR75 crores, we be eligible for listing on NSE.
Dharmesh Patel
Are we planning to list over there, sir?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Let’s see. We have two more years to do that, we can’t do it before March ’27. But out of three year, for first year eligibility criteria is satisfied. Like in ’25 balance sheet we have a INR75 crores plus one, and now we need to have INR75 crores net worth in ’26 and ’27 also.
Dharmesh Patel
Okay. Thanks, sir. Sir, EWA programs, are there any…
Operator
Sorry to interrupt Mr. Dharmesh. I would request you to return to the question queue.
Dharmesh Patel
This is my second question, ma’am. This is my second question.
Operator
I understand but we have limited the question.
Dharmesh Patel
I’ll join the queue.
Operator
Yeah. Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Arup Devi, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Arup Devi
Would you provide any guidance on personal loan and bill discounting such as EVM disbursement, or any other relevant method?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Come again. I can’t hear you properly. Please. Can you come again, please?
Arup Devi
Hi. Hello.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah.
Arup Devi
Yeah. Would you provide any guidance on personal loan and bill discounting such as EVM disbursement, or any other relevant method?
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, we are targeting 250 corporates this year as far as EWA program is concerned. Bill discounting we have just started, I cannot give you any exact numbers, how much you would have done by end of the year, that is still work-in-progress. So as I said earlier, we want to move in a very slow and steady manner on a firm footing. But as far as the profitability whatever guidance we have given in the previous con call we stick by that. And I think hopefully we achieve what we are projecting in the last year. And in the coming year also earnings growth should be what we have given guidance in the previous con calls.
Arup Devi
And what is your current monthly run rate for EWA?
Sanjay Aggarwal
As on 31st March about INR3 crores, we did INR3 crores plus, now currently we are doing INR3.4 crores.
Arup Devi
Okay, thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bibhor Halan, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Bibhor Halan
Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Bibhor Halan
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. And first of all, congratulations for a great set of numbers. Two parts to the question. One is that out of your total book size of INR80 crores what is your book size of SME and what is the growth we are targeting for next year? That’s the first question.
And the second part of the question is, your ROE is very low at 10.8%, are we targeting to increase the ROE to around 15%, 14% in the near future?
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, we will try to increase it as much as possible. See, that can always increase if we take higher risk. We do not want to take extraordinary risk, please appreciate one thing. Of course, every company is interested to increase their return on equity, but for that we have to correspondingly take the higher risk also, which we do not want to take as much at this stage.
Bibhor Halan
Okay. And first part sir, what is our SME book size and what is our growth guidance for that for the next year?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Of the total book as on 31st March INR3 crores was EWA and the balance was SME.
Bibhor Halan
So INR77 crores were SME, right?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah. Yeah.
Bibhor Halan
And what is the growth guidance for the next year? What is the loan book? What is the AUM growth guidance?
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, we are targeting INR15 crores book by end of March for EWA and about INR110 plus crores in business loan. That’s the bare minimum. In fact with the buyer we might be increasing it only.
Bibhor Halan
Sir one more thing, but, if we are not thinking of taking undue risk, right, of increasing the ROE, then what was the logic behind taking a pref [Phonetic] of INR13 crores, INR14 crores? Because then where have we deployed this capital out of this INR17 crores, [Foreign Speech]
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, we have deployed in business loan, and we are deploying in the EWA program. [Foreign Speech]
Bibhor Halan
Sir, can you provide a breakup of [Foreign Speech] Can you provide a breakup of your ROE, too? Because ROE of 10.8% seems to be very low if you are a zero NPA product.
Sanjay Aggarwal
See, in business loans we are deploying almost 17% on average and EWA is about 20% what we are giving gross return on that.
Bibhor Halan
Okay. So you are saying on EWA, what is your interest rate percentage for EWA?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Almost 20%. 20% plus only rather.
Bibhor Halan
Okay. And as of now — and one of the reason what I think is of your very low ROE is your maybe leverage ratio because your leverage ratio is probably 0.5.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah. Our leverage is very low. Now we are planning to raise an equity [Foreign Speech]
Bibhor Halan
So no more plans to raise the preference, right?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, no, no, no. We have already applied to the State Bank for increasing our limits.
Bibhor Halan
Thank you. Thank you, sir. I’ll join back the queue. Thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jigar Shah, an individual investor. Please proceed.
Jigar Shah
Hello? Yeah, hello. Am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Jigar Shah
Yeah. Congratulations on a very good set of numbers. I have one query, this EWA program, who pays the commission actually? Is it the employer pays or employee, it gets deducted from the employee only, whatever 1.5% to 2% commission you charge?
Talin Aggarwal
It’s the employee who pays us. It’s the employee who’s bearing the cost for using the facility.
Jigar Shah
Okay, so it doesn’t come from HR or the employer actually, you just deduct the commission from the loan which you have given the advance loan which you have given to the particular employee, okay, fine. And another question is, why are…
Operator
Jigar Shah, I would request you to return to the question queue as there are several participants waiting for their turn.
Jigar Shah
Okay. This is first question only, right? Two questions.
Operator
I understand, but we have limited the questions to one per participation.
Jigar Shah
Okay, fine.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hitesh Randhawa from CaGR Quest Capital. Please proceed.
Hitesh Randhawa
My question has already been answered. Yes, thank you.
Operator
Hello, Mr. Hitesh, it seems like…
Hitesh Randhawa
Yeah, I just said my question has already been answered. Yeah, thank you.
Operator
Okay, sure. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dharmesh Patel, an Individual Investor. Please proceed.
Dharmesh Patel
Hello. Hello.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Hi, Mr. Patel.
Dharmesh Patel
Yes, sir. Any customers who have decided — employers who have decided to discontinue our services in EWA program?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, not as of date. No, not as of date.
Dharmesh Patel
And in cross selling, sir, do we cross sell insurance or mutual funds or any other products?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, Talin, yeah.
Talin Aggarwal
Sir, this time we are only cross selling higher credit products to them. But going forward, we would definitely like to explore cross selling of investment and insurance.
Dharmesh Patel
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Khush Kothari from FEC SPIT. Please proceed.
Khush Kothari
Hello. Hello. Hello. Yeah, am I audible?
Sanjay Aggarwal
Yeah, yeah.
Khush Kothari
Yeah. So, can you help me draw a pattern around what business strategy are we deploying? I am facing some trouble. So earlier we were maybe entirely business loan focused NBFC, then we move towards an EWA loan focused fintech company, and now we are again, reverting back to that. Can you help me draw a structure, what our strategy is?
Talin Aggarwal
So allow me to maybe take you through the entire journey, so I think that will help shape your narrative better. So we started as a loan originator back in ’95-’96. At that time we were working for City Finance, and that is the one which we have been talking about, the loan origination business, so that has grown massively, so there we have almost 40-plus lenders for whom we do all sorts of credit products and that is under the subsidiary, shubhbank.com.
Khush Kothari
Understood.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankur Aggarwal from Motozak LLP. Please proceed.
Ankur Aggarwal
Sir, I wanted to know one thing. Do the promoters of the company also have a separate financing business or is Emerald Finance the only one?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, we were not into only finance business, we started as a DSA only. I am a chartered accountant myself; we started as a DSA back in 1997.
Ankur Aggarwal
Okay. So basically there is like no other separate business, private business kind of a thing?
Sanjay Aggarwal
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Khush Kothari
All right. And sir, one…
Sanjay Aggarwal
[Foreign Speech]
Khush Kothari
Okay, sir. Thank you. Sir. Look at it from other angle, for EWA products in this country it’s just a matter of time, like this product is flourishing in US, Europe, Philippines and now in Indonesia, the company in Indonesia is becoming very big. India is one of the biggest market in the world for this kind of a product, and there are only four major rivals in this country. And end-to-end operations in our case, end-to-end operations within our system, and we are operating at absolute zero delinquency right now. We have a huge strong base right now on which this base we can multiply on this particular base, keeping our delicacies flow as financing pattern is very good, we are hardly leveraged, there’s a huge scope for raising debt on our balance sheet. Against the total equity of INR75 crores as on 31st March, the total outstanding debt was only INR13 crores. You name a lender, they are approaching us. So there’s a huge scope of growth in this particular product, provided we keep our delinquencies absolutely nil.
Ankur Aggarwal
Definitely, sir. [Foreign Speech]
Sanjay Aggarwal
I will say, I totally agree with you. I still remember my first meeting with SBI [Foreign Speech]
Ankur Aggarwal
[Foreign Speech]
Sanjay Aggarwal
A very neat and clean NBFC, asset-light NBFC [Foreign Speech]
Ankur Aggarwal
[Foreign Speech]
Sanjay Aggarwal
[Foreign Speech]
Talin Aggarwal
More than only. So I think what he’s trying to say is that I think 250 is just the goal, right, it’s the process that matters more. When we started we were barely doing a couple of lakhs a month, and now we are already in a couple of cores. So this number will keep growing as we grow and in simultaneous our top line, bottom line everything will grow accordingly.
Gurmeet Kaur
And if I will just add this one part to it, that’s also very important, what consumer durable is to Bajaj Finance, it’s their acquisition channel, similarly EWA is also an acquisition channel for us where by doing EWA we are helping the employees build their credit scores. So once we have established a credit history for this particular customer, and coupled with the deduction flow model, we will also service the client with additional credit card. So we have to look at the complete growth trajectory in a holistic manner.
Ankur Aggarwal
Understood. [Foreign Speech]
Gurmeet Kaur
I will take that. The vision is there, but we would like to talk in this particular call on the tactical numbers. Because the vision, of course, always starts with the vision of five years, 10 years where you want to go. But you also do post corrections and based on what the market reality happens year-on-year, coupled with what are the other external influences, it can have an impact.
Ankur Aggarwal
Got it. Thank you.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as a last question for the day. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Chandni for closing comments. Over to you, ma’am.
Chandni Chande
Thank you, everyone, for joining the conference call of Emerald Finance Limited. If you have any queries, you can write to us at research@kirinadvisors.com. Once again, thank you for joining the conference call. Thank you, Sanjay sir. Thank you, Talin sir. Thank you, Gurmeet, ma’am.
Gurmeet Kaur
Thank you so much.
Sanjay Aggarwal
Thank you very much.
Talin Aggarwal
Thank you very much, everyone.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]