Computer Age Management Services Ltd Q4 FY2026 Concall Summary

Key Takeaways

• Non-MF revenue grew ~25% YoY, beating the 20% promise for the third straight year, while MF revenue held nearly flat in a disrupted quarter.
• Absolute EBITDA climbed to ~₹183 cr, recovering past the prior-year peak, and management called it a baseline that will stick.
• Equity AUM share hit a record 67%, extending a multi-year structural gain of roughly 1 percentage point per year.
• Headcount stayed flat as revenue grew, and FY27 is explicitly targeted for revenue growth on falling headcount through automation-driven productivity.
• What to watch next quarter: Whether the ReArch platform’s first module launch and data lake go-live begin to show in lower complaints and headcount, and whether KRA revenue holds flat as guided after the industry-wide 20% price cut.

Non-MF: The Growth Engine Now Outpacing the Core

• Broad-based 25% growth: CAMSPay, AIF, and KRA each grew more than 20% YoY, with no single outlier driving the beat; the mix of products and go-to-market strategy has now delivered above-promise growth for three successive years.
• Profitability inflecting: Non-MF margins reached upwards of 16% this quarter, up from the 12–13% range earlier, and the company is on track toward a 20% margin target by end-FY27.
• CAMSPay composition shifting: Non-MF now accounts for over half of CAMSPay revenue, driven by the cards business; the PG business (credit cards for insurance, loan repayments) contributes roughly 25% of quarterly revenue, with most non-MF volume coming from insurance and NBFC EMIs.
• KRA resilience despite headwinds: The business delivered 28% YoY revenue growth even after a price-down, geopolitical impact on new folio openings, and multiple moments of recurring last year; it has now decisively moved from number three to number two in the market.
• KRA price cut absorbed: An industry-wide voluntary 20% price reduction took effect 1st April, framed as broadening the franchise to lower-value consumers; management expects to hold KRA revenue flat in FY27 by offsetting the ~₹8 cr price-down with ~₹3 cr from the NSE KRA acquisition and natural growth from new broker logos.

Anuj Kumar: "We grew non-MF revenue close to 25% year-on-year. You know our promise has been 20%. But successively over the last 3 years, we've been able to beat that, and we expect that we have the mix of products and go-to-market strategy to continue doing this."

MF & Yields: Stability in a Disrupted Quarter

• MF revenue nearly flat at 0.5% growth: January and February were normal, but March saw significant impact from Middle East geopolitical disruption; management considered the flat outcome respectable given the environment.
• Yield compression entirely mix-driven: No individual asset class, including passives, saw a yield decline; the 0.9 bps QoQ drop came purely from passives growing faster than active funds as a share of AUM.
• Equity share gains are structural, not episodic: Equity AUM reached an all-time high of ₹30.5 lakh crores at a 67% share, up from roughly 60% five years ago; management called the gain roughly 1 percentage point per year and said the foundational components remain intact.
• Yield outlook benign: Historical compression has averaged 3–3.5% annually; management aims to keep it much lower next year, citing scale-based pricing plus minor adjustments and no expectation of major AMC negotiations.
• SIFs emerging as a new category: Four new SIFs launched during the quarter, bringing the live total to six, with roughly eight more licensed or soon-to-be-licensed; launches expected between May and August or faster, and the product category is expected to become competitively relevant.

Anuj Kumar: "It's not a flash in the pan. It's nothing that happened in 1 quarter or 2 quarters and will then go away because we believe the foundational components just remain intact."

Automation & the Falling-Headcount Thesis

• Revenue grew on flat headcount: Total headcount was nearly flat YoY when excluding ReArch hiring, while MF operations headcount actually dropped by roughly 70; increases were concentrated in risk, compliance, and non-MF investments.
• FY27 target: revenue growth on falling headcount: Management explicitly expects all revenue growth next year to come with a net reduction in headcount, achieved by choosing not to backfill some attrition; this is framed as a significant step-up in employee productivity and revenue per employee.
• Automation is structural, not a one-off: Face reading, video reading, and form reading have now taken out the maker step in physical forms and have been in production for nearly two months; the gain is expected to compound annually for the next five years because it reflects a past period of investment now maturing.
• Cost growth well under control: YoY cost increase including depreciation was only 9%, and excluding depreciation only 7.8%; QoQ cost increase was less than 1.5%; FY27 targets are sub-5% employee cost growth and overall expense growth definitely below 9%, aiming even lower.

Ram Charan: "This is not a one-off. I think what we have done is a structural and automation kind of thing has crept into the entire system."

ReArch: The Platform Build-Out Begins to Go Live

• First module launching now: The transaction origination module is fully built and launching in the marketplace; the data lake module on Google Cloud BigQuery is ready and will go live in the first half of FY27.
• AI-based form data extraction already live: The module that removes the maker layer from physical form processing has been in production for nearly two months and will continue to deepen.
• Remaining modules to follow: Payments and settlements, exchange transactions, and internal posting modules will go live over time; nine significant modules are being built in total, with a feature-by-feature, module-by-module approach to avoid the risk of a single big-bang failure.
• Five-year project, two years in: Management advised thinking of ReArch as a four-to-five-year journey; two years are complete, and significantly increasing momentum is expected going forward; full-year benefits in headcount, revenue per headcount, complaints, frauds, and risk items are expected once the data lake and transaction origination platform roll out in the next three to four months.

Anuj Kumar: "The other approach would have been to kind of build it all together and then test it. And that is like moving an army because you would have gone wrong just anywhere."

Margins: Climbing Back with Discipline

• EBITDA margin improved to 46.5% from 45% YoY, driven by cost optimization; absolute EBITDA reached ~₹183 cr, recovering past the prior-year peak that followed a price adjustment.
• Cost discipline is the driver: Cost increase was held to 9% YoY including depreciation and 7.8% excluding it, against an earlier target of 11%; QoQ cost increase was under 1.5%.
• FY27 margin aim: Management declined to guide a specific EBITDA margin but aims to at least retain Q4 FY26 margins after absorbing salary increases, investments, and some yield compression; in a bad quarter, margins would be less than 45%, and in a good quarter around 46–47%.
• Non-MF margin path: From 16% this quarter, the target is 20% by end-FY27, with an aspiration to eventually reach 25% EBITDA margin on the non-MF portfolio.

Anuj Kumar: "I would take the genesis to what we did 2 or 3 years back in investing in real automation... the gain will never be seen in a month, but the gain is really seen after 2 years. Will this gain be seen only today? No, you'll see for every year in the next 5 years because it's a past period of investment."

New Bets: ConsenPro, Insurance Demat & Adjacencies

• ConsenPro launched for DPDP compliance: Built inside Think360, the product covers consent mechanisms, data discovery, and regulatory reporting and consulting; it targets 40,000–50,000 Indian companies in the next 1–1.5 years as the 1st May compliance deadline approaches.
• LIC demat opens insurance door: LIC began policy issuance in demat format with largely digital origination, signed in March 2025 and integrated by Feb–March 2026; as LIC scales, management expects this to add a new dimension to insurance demat and bring other insurers into the frame.
• NSE KRA integration complete: Acquired via clump sale in January, the NSE KRA brought in roughly 13–14 lakh new PANs; integration was completed with no hiccups or service issues.
• Product strategy is focused, not scattered: Management was explicit that ConsenPro is the only new product being put out, with possibly one adjacency (a unified device for payments and KYC); the company is not angling for many new things and will focus on existing businesses where there is scale opportunity.

Anuj Kumar: "We don't want to get busy creating products, where we have no business to be present... We do not believe that we are angling for too many new things. We will just focus on what we have."

Guidance & Commitments

Key Metrics