Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd (ABSLAMC) Q2FY27 Concall Transcript - Sep-2026 Qtr
Moderator (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited): Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Q2 and H1 FY27 earnings conference call hosted by Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Prayesh Jain from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Prayesh Jain (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited): Thank you, Rutuja. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Motilal Oswal, I welcome you all to the Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Limited's 2Q FY27 earnings conference call. We have with us, Mr. A. Balasubramanian, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Pradeep Sharma, Chief
Prayesh Jain (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited): Mr. Paritosh Chhitoura, Head Investor Relations. We're thankful to the management for allowing us to host this call. I would now like to hand it over to Mr. A. Balasubramanian for opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
A. Balasubramanian (Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd): Yeah. Thank you, thank you for hosting us. And good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Q2 FY '27 investors call. I hope you all had the opportunity to read through our earnings presentation which is available on both the stock exchanges and our company's website. Let me begin by sharing our perspective on the current macroeconomic environment. The global economy, as is known, demonstrated remarkable resilience. In Q2 FY '27, growth sustained its momentum despite a challenging external environment. The prolonged geopolitical conflict and inflationary pressure and El Niño and potential asset price correction remain areas to watch. But the global growth outlook remains constructive. And India continues to stand out as one of the fastest growing major economies, powered by robust private consumption, resilient service sector, and strong fixed income fixed investment, alongside a positive contribution from net export. And growth momentum in the first quarter of the year came in well ahead of expectations. And government infrastructure spending and private CapEx and robust credit flow are sustaining investment. The IMF has revised its FY '27 growth forecast for India from 6.4% to 7%, and the RBI revised its outlook upwards to 7.1%, a reflection of confidence in the economic underlying strength. Economic activity has held firm even as we keep a close watch on the Southwest monsoon and its implication for the upcoming Rabi season. In its October policy, the RBI raised repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.5% and signaled a more cautious stance on inflation, while reaffirming confidence in the growth trajectory. India's external position has been supported by healthy capital flows, including NRI deposits, FCNR(B) balances and forex reserves over $730 billion. And these strengthen our external sector resilience and provide a cushion in times of global uncertainty and related currency volatility. Moving to Indian market, the quarter was marked by volatility amid elevated crude prices, higher global bond yields, a weaker rupee, and shifting interest rate expectations. While large cap indices corrected, the broader market held up relatively well, reflecting confidence in India's long-term growth story. Steady domestic participation through SIPs and continued financialization of household savings helped cushion the volatility and underscore the structural strength of India's capital market. A busy primary market reflected strong appetite among issuers and investors for capital formation. And looking ahead, near term volatility may persist, but earnings growth and domestic investor base continue to provide a strong foundation for the longer term outlook. Coming to mutual fund industry, the quarterly average AUM stood at 87.21 lakh crore as on 30th September 2026, compared to 77.13 lakh crore as of the same period last year, registering year-on-year growth of about 13%. The SIP contribution for the industry stood at 32,490 crore for September 2026, representing a year-on-year growth of 11%. The total mutual fund folios stood at 30 crore as on September 2026, growing by 17% year-on-year. During Q2 FY '27, the industry saw a total NFO collection of approximately 11,524 crore across other classes, with equity collection driven by index, aggressive hybrid, and value fund. And despite market volatility, the industry continued to witness healthy net inflows in equity-oriented schemes, reflecting investors' growing preferences for disciplined long-term investing. SIP flows remain resilient and retail participation stayed strong. Investor preferences continue to shift towards mid-cap, small-cap, and flexi-cap funds, a sign of confidence in India's long-term growth prospects and of participation broadening across market segments. Individual average AUM for September 2026 stood at 53.24 lakh crore, contributing around 61% of total AUM. B30 cities with an average AUM of 16.37 lakh crore accounted for 18.8% of total AUM, growing by 13% year-on-year. Deepening our reach in B30 is a strategic priority for us, as this is where India's next chapter of wealth creation will come from.
A. Balasubramanian (Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd): EPFO mandate, crossed ₹11 lakh crore milestones this quarter, and now stands at ₹11.06 lakh crore, a growth of 140%. This includes mandate money from ESIC and EPFO. Our mutual fund quarterly average AUM stood at ₹4.42 lakh crore, up by 4% year on year. And within this, our equity mutual fund quarterly average AUM stood at approximately ₹2.09 lakh crore, growing by 9% year on year. Our equity mix for the quarter stood at 47.4%. Our SIP contribution for September '26 stood at ₹1,095 crore supported by 41.7 lakh folios contributing in SIP accounts, and total investors folios for September 2026 stood at 1.14 crore, up 6% year on year, with the new SIP registration for the quarter at about 7.04 lakh approximately. Our equity fund performance continues to be consistent. This has strengthened our investor confidence, supported healthy inflows across the flagship offerings like Flexi Cap, Balanced Advantage Fund, multi-asset and small-cap fund. In fact, our equity performance has now gone to almost three and five years basis as well. They're coming in the reckoning of the peer group. This also a good news. I think it should eventually help us in building more stronger equity flows. Strengthening and diversifying our distribution network remains the key priority. Through my yatra, covering nearly 9,000 km across India, I've had stronger and more meaningful conversations with our partners, and gathered valuable insights from the ground. This has deepened our engagement with distributors in both existing and emerging markets, helping us build a stronger and more diversified distribution franchise. On the technology front, innovation remains at the heart of our customer-first approach. During the quarter, we advanced our AI-first agenda by expanding our Gen AI-enabled capabilities across chatbot, voice, and WhatsApp channels, creating more personalized, responsive, and scalable customer experiences. We are also leveraging data analytics to strengthen customer acquisition, investor engagement, partner productivity, and service effectiveness across our distribution ecosystems. Turning to our alternate business, we witnessed strong growth during the year. Our PMS, AIF assets increased from ₹3,300 crore to ₹6,54,000 crore, which of course includes the EPFO mandate that we have got. We are currently have fund raising under way for our special opportunities and structured opportunities money manager fund and India selector fund, especially in the AIF business, both including fixed income as well as equity assets under management, equity equity categories, and these offerings are aligned with investor demand for differentiated and specialized investment opportunities. In our real estate business, our AUM stood at approximately ₹860 crore, a 43% year-on-year growth, and fundraising is currently underway for the Aditya Birla Real Estate Credit Opportunities Fund Series 2, which focus on senior secured lending opportunities in post-approval brownfield real estate projects across Tier 1 cities. At GIFT City, we have launched our retail fund offerings enabling Indian and global investors to access inbound and outbound investment opportunities through a dedicated retail platform. Fundraising is underway for the ABSL Flexi Cap Fund, which is for inward remittance. The coming quarter, we plan to launch six funds across both retail and non-retail categories, addressing inbound and outbound opportunities. Backed by a growing product suite and GIFT City global investment ecosystem, we are well placed to build a scalable offshore franchise in the coming years under the LRS scheme, as well as for global investors investing in India. Passives is one of key anchors for our growth strategy and we are committed to building a leadership position in this segment. In fact, we have introduced Birla Passives as a new brand, a dedicated brand, and identify identify the strength, identify to strengthen our visibility with investors and distributors and drive higher mind share and grow market share. And during the Q2 FY '27, our passive quarterly average assets under management stood at approximately ₹39,890 crore, up 10% year on year. Our investor base continued to expand with total folios reaching around 17.9 lakh folios. We are the first first we were the first in India to launch BSE Total Market Cap index fund and a BSE Total Market Cap Market Cap ETF, thus pioneering a new category in the passive investment landscape on the lines of Vanguard, the largest fund in the world. We aim to build these funds into flagship product offering investors broad-based exposure to the Indian equity market through a single and simple solutions. Our ETF franchise delivered particularly strong momentum. ETF quarterly average AUM grew by about 42% year on year and significantly ahead of industry growth of about 27%.
A. Balasubramanian (Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd): segment which SEBI had introduced some time back. Our SIF segment we launched equity long-short fund and equity ex-top 100 long-short fund backed by our strengthened investment team with specialist in long-short and derivatives-based strategies. Our SIF platform now comprises of three products with total AUM approximately about 700 crores as of September 2026. Coming to the financials, Q2 FY27, the total revenue is about 523 crores as compared to 506 crores in Q2 FY26. Q2 FY27 profit before tax is about 293 crores as compared to 316 crores in Q2 FY26. And Q2 FY27 profit after tax was about 221 crores as compared to 241 crores in Q2 FY26. Now turning to our half yearly performance, our H1 FY27 total revenue is about 1,052 crores as compared to 1,072 crores in H1 FY26. Our H1 FY profit before tax is 702 crores as compared to 688 crores in H1 FY26. Our H1 FY27 profit after tax is 530 crores as compared to 518 crores in H1 FY26. With this, I would like to open the floor for any questions. I'll be joined by Parag Sharma, who is our CFO, for taking any of the questions that you may have.
Moderator (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited): Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants who wishes you to ask a question, please press star and one. The first question is from the line of Shreyas Pimple from Nomura Wealth. Please go ahead.
Shreyas Pimple (Nomura Wealth): Hi, thanks so much for this opportunity. My first question was on ESOPs. So full on ESOPs, we highlighted a diverse a new scheme for
Moderator (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited): I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Pimple, but we are unable to hear you, sir. Your voice is breaking.
Shreyas Pimple (Nomura Wealth): Is it better?
Moderator (Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited): Can you speak?
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