Gandhi said the company is targeting 20-25% growth in assets under management (AUM), adding that the guidance is in line with its long-term strategy.
The company recorded AUM growth of nearly 20% in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26) and crossed key milestones, including ₹15,000 crore in AUM and ₹500 crore in profit before tax.
On margins, Gandhi said the company expects stability following the improvement in the recent quarter, indicating limited near-term pressure.
While the West Asia crisis is being monitored, there are no immediate tensions in the portfolio, he said, although the company remains cautious on energy-dependent sectors.
MAS Financial sees MSME loans as a main driver, contributing more than 70% of assets, while personal loans will remain capped at less than 10% of AUM.
MAS Financial Services has a market capitalization of ₹6,170.32 crore, with the stock up by over 26% in the last year.
These are edited excerpts of the interview.Question: The first question is that your AUM has ended with good growth. As far as FY26 is concerned, what are you targeting for FY27, and what kind of cost of funds do we expect to see?A: As you rightly said, our AUM growth in FY26 was around 20%. Over time, you have committed to growth between 20% to 25% while always prioritizing risk management and profitability. So, assuming everything falls into place this year, we should see growth anywhere between 20% to 25%.
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This year also proved to be many important milestones for us. So, we crossed ₹15,000 crore in AUM, and we crossed ₹500 crore in profit before tax on a consolidated basis. Going forward, we see FY27 also should deliver growth in the range of 20% to 25%.
Question: If you can also give us an update on NIMs – they have improved sharply in this quarter. Will this trend continue, given that many small businesses may face the impact of the Middle East crisis? Are you seeing some impact on that in your conversations with unsecured personal loans or small business owners?A: Talking about NIM, I think the cut in interest rates was long overdue. We have MCLR-based borrowing, so in this quarter, it started and the incremental cost of borrowing was around 9.3%, which was at least 0.4% lower than last quarter. For this reason, we benefited from higher NIM in this quarter.
Coming to your question on the West Asia crisis, we are closely engaged with all our borrowers, and we are assessing the situation from time to time. At the moment, we are cautious about enterprises that are energy dependent, but this is an evolving situation, and we are keeping a close eye on all those borrowers and sectors to understand the risks in the right perspective.
Q: Do you expect any moderation in NIM in FY27, especially in Q1 and Q2?A: I think the rates that we saw last quarter have now stabilized. Therefore, NIM will continue on a regular basis. Typically, our NIMs are between 27% and 30%, and we expect them to remain within that range.
For the full interview, watch the accompanying video
Q: Personal loans are growing at a faster pace than other segments, and this is something we saw with a 9% product mix, but last quarter it grew 22% to ₹1,264 crore. Is this the expected growth rate? What about product mix in general? Will this change, or will it continue with the top 40% of microloans and then SMEs?A: Therefore, MSMEs, what we call micro enterprise credit and small and medium enterprise credit, will continue to be the key driver of our assets on the balance sheet. Therefore, it will continue to contribute more than 70% to our total assets. As far as individual loans are concerned, they will grow in line with our overall growth of 20% to 25%, and within the prescribed limit – we are not going to cross more than 10% of our total AUM.
Question: You have given long-term guidance earlier also. You have said that as far as this particular decade is concerned, your target is to double the AUM every two to three years. You expect ROA and ROE to be around 2.8% and 16%. Due to all the events that have happened over the past few months, has there been any change in the long-term guidance you provided?A: We have always guided that we will double our AUM between three to four years. If you calculate growth anywhere between 20% and 25%, and take an average of 22%, it will take us about three to four years to double our AUM, and we are sticking to that guidance.
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Obviously, we have always said that we will prioritize risk management and profitability. If we have to grow less than 20% in some quarters, so be it. But as I speak now, the long-term guidance of growth between 20% to 25% remains intact.
Q: When we talk to a company like yours, we understand that you have a dual sourcing model, and we also understand that 34% of the business partner comes from NBFCs. So, moving forward, what is the ideal mix you are targeting, especially in terms of customer acquisition?A: Our distribution will grow at a faster pace than our partnerships with NBFCs. Given this, direct distribution will increase, and what is currently around 34% will gradually reduce to around 28% to 30% in the next two to three years.
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