1. Gold loan portfolio expansion - Gold loan AUM reached ₹6,332 crore in Q1 FY26, up 38.8% YoY, contributing 40.3% of total AUM, with 35,000 new customers added in Q4 FY25 alone. The portfolio yields 19.7% and management is confident of maintaining these yields by focusing on the retail book, while the underlying market remains underpenetrated at 7% with unorganised players holding \~65% share.
2. Strategic pivot to 100% secured book - Unsecured business loan AUM de-grew 9% YoY to ₹1,656 crore by March 2025, and in Q1 FY26 the company executed a 100% direct assignment of ₹770 crore of unsecured loans, derecognising them from AUM. This removes the main source of credit-cost volatility - unsecured lending - and concentrates growth on the higher-margin secured gold and LAP businesses where credit costs are structurally lower.
3. Medium ticket LAP growth - Medium ticket LAP AUM grew 44% YoY to ₹4,394 crore as of March 2025, constituting 28% of total AUM. With management targeting a "LAP-first" identity and secured book growth of 25-30% in FY26, MT LAP is the largest single component of the on-book growth engine.
4. Small ticket LAP rebuild and ramp-up - ST LAP disbursals touched ₹270 crore in Q4 FY25, up \~58% QoQ from \~₹170 crore in Q3, after a rebuild phase that included a new Chief Business Officer, migration to Salesforce, and tightened lending norms. Management calls ST LAP the "pivot business" that will grow at a "much, much faster pace" than all other businesses, making its recovery the highest-upside lever within the secured portfolio.
5. Off-balance sheet expansion and capital conservation - The off-balance sheet book stood at ₹3,973 crore as of March 2025, up 75% YoY, and rose further to 25.5% of total AUM in Q1 FY26 from 20.7% a year earlier. Moving loans off-book via direct assignment and co-lending improves capital adequacy - CRAR reached 22.4% in Q1 FY26 - and frees up equity to fund new secured-book origination without dilution.
6. Doorstep gold loan initiative - Doorstep gold loan AUM more than doubled in FY25 and now constitutes 15% of total gold AUM, up from \~9.6% at the start of the year. Management targets this share rising to 18-22% over the next one to two years, which would deepen penetration of the highest-yielding secured product without the cost of new branches.
7. Branch co-location and cost efficiency - The company co-located 23 MSE LAP branches with gold loan branches in Q1 FY26, reducing total branch count to 668 from 694 while adding origination capacity. Co-location lets a single branch source both gold and LAP loans, improving branch-level AUM productivity - gold AUM per branch already rose 34% YoY to ₹12.1 crore - and lowering the cost-to-income ratio over time.