ICRA Limited reported robust financial results for Q4 FY2026, with a 28.4% year-on-year increase in revenue, driven by significant growth in its Research and Analytics segment. Despite the strong performance, the company’s stock saw a slight decline of 0.71% following the earnings announcement, closing at 5,381 INR. This reaction suggests a cautious market stance amid broader economic uncertainties.
Key Takeaways
- ICRA’s consolidated revenue rose by 28.4% year-on-year in Q4 FY2026.
- The Research and Analytics segment led growth with a 56.8% increase.
- The stock price declined by 0.71% post-earnings release.
- Macroeconomic concerns and geopolitical tensions may impact future outlooks.
Company Performance
ICRA demonstrated strong performance in Q4 FY2026, with consolidated revenue increasing by 28.4% compared to the same period last year. This growth was primarily fueled by the Research and Analytics segment, which saw a 56.8% increase, largely due to the acquisition of Fintellix and sustained demand for compliance-oriented analytics solutions. The ratings business also contributed with a steady 10.6% growth year-on-year.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: 1.75 billion INR, up 28.4% year-on-year.
- Earnings per share: 54.43 INR.
- Consolidated PBT before exceptional items and tax: 72.8 crores INR.
Earnings vs. Forecast
ICRA’s actual EPS for Q4 FY2026 was 54.43 INR. The revenue for the quarter was 1.75 billion INR. Despite these strong numbers, the stock price fell by 0.71%, indicating a cautious market response.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings announcement, ICRA’s stock price decreased by 0.71%, closing at 5,381 INR. This decline came despite a 0.88% increase from the last close, reflecting investor caution amid broader economic uncertainties. The stock remains within its 52-week range, suggesting moderate performance.
Outlook & Guidance
Looking ahead, ICRA forecasts continued growth in its ratings business and expects the Research and Analytics segment to deliver reasonable growth over the next few years. However, macroeconomic challenges, including geopolitical tensions and rising energy prices, pose potential risks to this outlook.
Executive Commentary
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, CEO of ICRA Analytics, emphasized the successful integration of Fintellix and the company’s focus on scaling product-led offerings. He noted, “Our strategic acquisitions and realignment efforts are positioning us well for sustainable growth.”
Risks and Challenges
- Geopolitical uncertainties and macroeconomic pressures could impact future performance.
- Margin moderation in the Research and Analytics segment due to business mix shifts.
- Potential challenges in the Knowledge Services business from automation trends.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the impact of geopolitical tensions on ICRA’s outlook and the company’s strategies to mitigate these risks. Executives highlighted their focus on diversifying revenue streams and enhancing operational efficiencies to navigate these challenges.
Full transcript – ICRA Ltd (ICRA) Q4 2026:
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the ICRA Limited FY2026 Investor and Analyst Conference Call hosted by ICRA. 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. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Joining us today from the management side, we have Mr. Ramnath Krishnan, Managing Director and Group CEO, ICRA Limited, Mr. Venkatesh Viswanathan, Group Chief Financial Officer, Mr. L.
Shivakumar, EVP Business Development and Chief Business Officer, ICRA Limited and CEO, ICRA ESG Rating; Mr. Abhishek Dafria, Head of Group Strategy and Business Transformation; and Mr. Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, to discuss the performance of the company, followed by a Q&A session. Before we begin today’s conference call, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made in today’s conference call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve some risks and uncertainties. Please refer to slide 23 of the investor presentation for detailed disclaimer. ICRA or any of its subsidiaries or the Directors, Officers, or employees of ICRA or its subsidiaries shall have no liability whatsoever for any loss however arising from any forward-looking statement or use of the investor presentation or its contents, or otherwise arising in connection with this conference call.
I would like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ramnath Krishnan, Managing Director and Group CEO, ICRA, to commence the proceedings. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Ramnath Krishnan, Managing Director and Group CEO, ICRA Limited: Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to ICRA’s earnings call for the fourth quarter and for the year ending 2026. I’ll take you through the key highlights for the quarter and the year, share some important updates, and then outline how we are positioned getting into this financial year, FY2027. Let me begin with headline financial performance for the last quarter of the previous financial year. We delivered a strong Q4 performance with consolidated revenue increasing by 28.4% year-on-year. Growth was led by the Research and Analytics segment, which recorded a 56.8% year-on-year increase, driven by acquisition of Fintellix and sustained demand for risk, data, and compliance-oriented analytics solutions. Ratings business also continued to see steady growth of 10.6% year-on-year, supported by improved credit activity and deeper market engagement. Consolidated PBT before exceptional items and tax stood at INR 72.8 crores.
For FY26, ICRA reported a strong all-round performance with revenue increasing by 20.4% year on year. The Rating segment continued its steady trajectory with 14.2% growth, while Research and Analytics delivered a sharper growth of 29.8%, supported by the consolidation of Fintellix and increasing traction in risk and compliance solutions. PBT grew by 10%, reflecting the growth in revenues and improved benefits from scaling, while we continue to invest in talent, technology, and integration of the acquired businesses. For better comparability, the PBT reported above excludes one-time exceptional charges arising from implementation of the new labour codes and so on. Our Rating segment continued to demonstrate margin expansion driven by steady revenue growth and improved operating leverage. In Research and Analytics, revenue growth was strong across key areas such as risk, regulatory, and data analytics solutions.
The knowledge services business, what we now call Knotech, while stable across its core areas, saw some moderation in growth due to discontinuation of certain engagements and increasing automation trends. This has led to a shift in the overall business mix with a higher contribution from non-Knotech businesses, which structurally have a different margin profile, resulting in some moderation at the segment level. We remain focused on scaling product-led offerings, driving efficiencies, and expanding our global footprint and the plan ways to support margin improvement over time. Some of the key non-financial highlights. Last year marked a significant milestone as ICRA completed 35 years of operations, reflecting a longstanding track record of credibility, analytical rigor, and market relevance. To commemorate this milestone, the board has recommended a dividend of INR 105 per share. That includes INR 35 per share of special dividend, consistent with 35 years of our existence.
This is subject to shareholders’ approval. During the year, we completed the acquisition of Fintellix and saw leadership transition in our analytics business with Mr. Mruthyunjayappa taking over as the CEO of ICRA Analytics and also as the head of our entire research and analytics vertical. Which comprises three entities, ICRA Analytics, Fintellix, and D2K Technologies. Mr. Mruthyunjayappa succeeds Mr. Jayanta Chatterjee, whom we thank for his contributions. Jayanta retired in the month of January of 2026. Alongside this, we have structurally realigned the research and analytics segment businesses into Knotech, BankTech, and CapTech, supported by a unified IT and product engineering organization to enable scalable technology-led growth. We continue to make steady progress on our AI roadmap, with focus initiatives aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and driving sustainable productivity gains across the organization.
We have begun deploying AI-powered agents in select processes, as well as integrating AI layer into analytical tools offered by our subsidiaries to strengthen our client value proposition. We expect AI to augment and sharpen our capabilities, while the deep domain knowledge and human expertise we have built over decades will remain at the core of our decision-making. We were also pleased with the award given by The Institute of Company Secretaries of India during the year, recognizing our efforts in the area of CSR. Looking ahead in terms of market outlook. With the ongoing West Asia conflict, India’s GDP growth is estimated to have slowed down in the last quarter of FY 2026. A large part of the adverse impact of the surge in global energy and commodity prices is expected to manifest itself in early FY 2027, which will weigh on GDP growth and macroeconomic outcomes.
Given the uncertainty around the resolution of the conflict or the timing of it, elevated energy prices for an extended period of time will all pose a downside risk to growth in the near term. Besides, the potential development of El Niño conditions and weak monsoon forecasts for this year have dulled the agricultural outlook and rural prospects for the second half of this financial year. Assuming average crude price of $95 to a barrel, ICRA currently projects GDP growth to moderate to 6.2% in real terms in FY 2027, and this translates to roughly about 12% in nominal terms. In FY 2027, looking at the credit environment, credit markets are expected to remain somewhat dynamic, with bank credit likely to retain its competitive position over bond markets given current inflationary pressures and liquidity conditions. Higher hedging costs will make foreign currency borrowings relatively less attractive, further supporting domestic credit.
Overall, the environment remains evolving with both opportunities and risks across different segments. Specifically on the Research and Analytics business, key regulatory developments, including Reserve Bank of India’s transition. We’re expecting banks to transition to an expected credit loss framework effective 1st April 2027, along with the evolving capital market regulations are expected to sustain demand for risk modeling, data infrastructure, and compliance-oriented solutions. The company continues to align its offerings with these trends. Our outlook remains anchored in structural drivers with rising regulatory intensity and accelerated GenAI adoption reshaping client expectations. We are focused on centering our position through deeper global engagement and continued enhancement of our portfolio. Ongoing investments in analytics platforms, compliance capabilities, and scalable delivery frameworks will support evolving market needs and drive long-term growth in the Research and Analytics business. This is the update I have for all of you.
Thank you very much, and I now hand over the call back to the operator. Operator, over to you. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their 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. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The first question comes from the line of Divij Punjabi with Banyan Tree Advisors. Please go ahead.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: Hi, thanks for the opportunity. I had three questions. One was on the ratings business. In this quarter, we saw that the year-on-year growth was materially lower than peers. What was the reason for that? Second is on the non-rating side. I’m seeing that ex of Fintellix growth is around 7% year-on-year. If you can just break this down into how the different segments, the core segments within non-ratings is done. Third is related to capital allocation. Is there any consideration around doing a buyback given that we have around INR 700 crore plus of cash on the books?
L. Shivakumar, EVP Business Development and Chief Business Officer, CEO ICRA ESG Rating, ICRA Limited: Thanks for your questions. I will take the first one. My name is L. Shivakumar. I am the Chief Business Officer for ICRA. On the ratings business, I think your observation was that we were materially lower. No, actually, we see it this way, that broadly we are in the same band, at a very broad level, at a similar band as several of our peers. One needs to see we all have different base to contend with. If you see our own performance last four years, once again, it is broadly in a similar band of double-digit growth. The way we see it is that our strategy of focusing on the growth segments, which is something we have been doing very consciously over the last four years, that has played out quite well. We have built quite a bit of strength and quite a bit of coverage in these growth segments.
We intend to continue with the same strategy. If we see last four years and if we see particularly this year, essentially it’s a play between bank credit and the bonds, depending on the interest rates, depending on the bond yields, which are again impacted not only by domestic drivers but also geopolitical drivers, which we saw last year and we continue to see. The play is between these two segments. We are well-positioned in both, and our strategy would be to continue our focus on the growth segments. That’s all from my side.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: Yeah. Go ahead.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Hi, thanks for the question. This is Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, CEO of the R&A business. Your question was around growth rate within R&A for the second half of the year.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: excluding Fintellix.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Sorry, excluding Fintellix. Excluding Fintellix, we had muted growth within knowledge services, the outsourcing services business, which was the bulk of what we do within ICRA Analytics. Outside of that, the smaller, what we used to call the R&S business and market data businesses actually grew. Although on a small base, they delivered growth and returned profitable. Fintellix obviously got added only towards the second half of the year. All those numbers that you see reflect the Fintellix numbers too.
L. Shivakumar, EVP Business Development and Chief Business Officer, CEO ICRA ESG Rating, ICRA Limited: Yeah. The third question was on the capital allocation. I think the way we are looking at capital allocation is if you look back for the last three years, we have consistently increased the dividend payout. Even for the current year, if you look at that, typically we used to pay INR 60 per share, that we have increased to INR 70. I’m talking about the normal dividend. Outside that there was a special dividend as well, and we’ll continue to see how we can actually improvise and keep on improvising in this aspect. The second part, I think, largely a question is, are there any alternate way of looking at capital allocation? Yes, there are alternate ways, and we keep on continuing to look at those options, especially considering the fact that there has been some changes to the taxation rules.
We will continue to evaluate that option as well, and as and when the board approves it, we will relook at the capital allocation further.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: Sure. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rajiv Mehta with YES SECURITIES. Please go ahead.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: Yeah. Hi, good evening. Congratulations on stable performance. I have a few questions. First, what will be the outlook on the ratings growth in the current year? I mean, what has been the kind of borrowing activity in April, May? If you can throw some light. If this uncertainty lingers around for some more time, what kind of an impact it can have in the rating revenue growth? I think the last two years, the rating revenues have grown by 14% at a very healthy clip. Do you see it moderating because the starts of the year are weak? If you can also highlight what is the base of surveillance fees which will give us some growth, natural growth, and maybe it will help us in understanding how much moderation can come in.
L. Shivakumar, EVP Business Development and Chief Business Officer, CEO ICRA ESG Rating, ICRA Limited: Sure. See, as far as the ratings business is concerned, I mean, obviously, similar to any other business, we do the leverage play on the economic activity. In the near term, we expect the bond market activity to be somewhat subdued, given the spike in the yields.
Ramnath Krishnan, Managing Director and Group CEO, ICRA Limited: Which is probably expected to persist a little longer. At the same time, we expect actually bank credit to grow quite well. Which is what I think will probably drive bulk of our growth at this point in time. In the first couple of months of this financial year, we have not seen any significant slowdown in the market or generally speaking in our ratings business. We’re hoping that the same trends will actually continue. Are there some headwinds thanks to the geopolitical crisis? The answer is yes, but it hasn’t yet manifested itself in any significant challenges, which is beginning to cause us concern from a growth perspective.
Rajiv Mehta, Analyst, YES SECURITIES: Mm-hmm. Yeah. In the Research and Analytics segment, you’ve been trying to point out in your wordings also in the presentation and the press release that there could be margin shift because the revenue mix itself is shifting. Can you give us some indications of margins at the business level? I think Fintellix is at 20% EBITDA margin, roughly. You also have D2K. If you can highlight the ballpark margins of D2K. The Knowledge Services is not growing well, and the other businesses like BankTech and CapTech are growing better. This revenue mix shift within Research and Analytics, where do you see eventual margin stabilizing? How much of the margin give up can happen because of the shift?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: This is Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa again. I will not specifically guide you on any EBITDA margins, but I can broadly talk to directionally where we are headed. At an industry level, BankTech type of businesses, which are product-led risk and regulatory solutions to the financial services industry. These kind of businesses deliver anywhere between 20%-35% EBITDA margins. We will also be pursuing on those lines. Why that broad range? It’s because different geographies have different margin profiles. Based on how we shift our revenue mix from India to outside of India, and more specifically to the developed markets, that will determine how much of that we can achieve. Broadly, this will be the margin profile of a product-led business.
Rajiv Mehta, Analyst, YES SECURITIES: The other one, CapTech and D2K. Some indication there?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Again, I’ll not comment specifically on D2K. The way we have now organized ourselves, I don’t know if you’ve seen the investor presentation. We’ve organized ourselves into BankTech, CapTech, and NoTech. BankTech consists of the erstwhile RMS business, which is the risk management-
Rajiv Mehta, Analyst, YES SECURITIES: Risk management solutions. Yeah.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: plus Fintellix and D2K. Now, as a combined division within R&A, BankTech, we are trying to move to a more consolidated, integrated organization, and we’ll strive to achieve this at a combined level.
Rajiv Mehta, Analyst, YES SECURITIES: Okay. With regards to the synergies that we were supposed to extract from D2K acquisition, where are we in terms of those synergies already being extracted out in the last one and a half, two years since we have taken over? Also possibly please talk us through about the synergies through which Fintellix acquisition will also become beneficial for us. Yeah. This is my last question. Thanks.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Yeah. Although D2K acquisition happened a couple of years ago, the deeper integration has happened only recently. Along with Fintellix coming on board, we are driving that. Integration is going as per plan. We have now been able to put all our products together into a more combined product suite, realizing the benefits of carrying all of these products together, which are broadly complementary in nature. With overlapping customers, which is now not only just expanding our footprint in India and the region, but we are also beginning to see this manifest in customers having multiple of our products. We believe this will start playing out over the next two years, where we strengthen our customer relationships and expand the solution offerings within each of those customers, especially the large ones.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nirav with Auriga. Please go ahead.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors2: Hi, sir. Good evening. I just have a couple of questions. First is on the rating side. With ratings growing in double digits in FY 2027 and operating leverage at play, is it realistic to assume for the margins to go above 40% in the coming years? Second is on the non-ratings Moody’s part of the business. Are we seeing further insourcing of projects by the parent or that has stabilized? What sort of growth or project visibility you have for the next couple of years?
Ramnath Krishnan, Managing Director and Group CEO, ICRA Limited: Yeah. On the first question, when we talk about ratings, whether there will be a swing in the margin.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Generally speaking, ratings business, if they grow double digit, we don’t give a guidance of margin. What we have seen in the past, even with ICRA or other industry, is if typically people grow in double digit, there is some addition which happens to the margin. If you go back and look back, you will figure out that whatever those companies which have done a double digit, there’s some amount of leverage that kicks in. There’s no doubt about it, because generally the employee costs are sub 10, the merit increase. Typically speaking, if a well-invested technology company, it should give you some kind of a pass-through in terms of margins. On the second question, can you just repeat on the second question?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors2: Sure. My second question was with respect to non-ratings Moody’s part of business. Are we seeing further insourcing of projects by the parent, or that has stabilized? What sort of visibility in terms of new project wins for that knowledge service part of the business we have for the next couple of years?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: On the Moody’s side, I think you would have seen the last couple of years, the growth has been muted. We think going forward also we will see some kind of a moderation in growth. It will be muted. We don’t expect a higher double-digit growth there. As regards the insourcing from parent is concerned, they keep on automating the processes on an ongoing basis, and certain amount of insourcing happens periodically. There’s no specific information that we have, but based on our past experience, some amount of insourcing happens, some amount of they keep on giving us a project work. This keeps on happening on an ongoing basis.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors2: Got it. Thanks, sir. If I have further questions, I’ll come back in the queue.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Sure.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pritesh Chheda with Lucky Investments. Please go ahead.
Pritesh Chheda, Analyst, Lucky Investments: Sir, can you call out the organic growth in the research analytics business for FY 2026?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: I think Shailendra did cover that earlier. The organic, we don’t give a separate growth between organic and inorganic. That’s how the disclosures are made. Having said that, the overall growth, as mentioned in our PR, is driven by the acquisition of Fintellix. We had also clarified in the same PR that the biggest business in the research and analytics, which is knowledge services, we continue to see a moderate growth there. Bulk of the growth that we are seeing has come from Fintellix acquisition.
Pritesh Chheda, Analyst, Lucky Investments: Okay. What would be your outlook for growth for the coming years and in conjunction with the aspiration of making R&A 50% of the company level revenue?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Again, we don’t give an outlook for the revenue growth. Having said that, I think the acquisition of Fintellix gives us a very good platform. As Shailendra did explain, there’s a lot of consolidation which happens. We are also trying to work on different geographies. We expect that the acquisition of Fintellix will drive growth in the next two to three years. We can’t quantify the growth, but the growth will be reasonable, and it will also try to offset some of the moderation that is happening in the knowledge services.
Pritesh Chheda, Analyst, Lucky Investments: Okay. Since which quarter Fintellix was consolidated?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: I think from October first we have started consolidating Fintellix. Six months.
Pritesh Chheda, Analyst, Lucky Investments: Half year, basically.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Right.
Pritesh Chheda, Analyst, Lucky Investments: Okay. Thank you, sir.
Ramnath Krishnan, Managing Director and Group CEO, ICRA Limited: To clarify, just elaborate further on what Venkat just said. FY 2026, even if you were to exclude Fintellix, if you look at the other businesses that were existing prior to October of 2025, Knotech saw modest growth. The other two businesses, basically risk management and market data, the 2 large verticals that are part of ICRA Analytics, both of them saw pretty healthy growth. At an aggregate level, even if one were to exclude Fintellix, the rest of the operations did actually deliver growth over the previous year.
Pritesh Chheda, Analyst, Lucky Investments: Okay, sir.
Operator: Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Abhijeet Sakhare with Kotak Bank. Please go ahead.
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Hi. Good evening, everyone. I hope I’m audible. My first question was on the ratings business. While you did mention that double-digit revenue growth would imply margin improvement, what is your assessment of the current margin gap between ICRA and the other players?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: From a current margins perspective, I’m sure there are three players that you’re talking about, CRISIL as well as CARE. I think each one works with a different set of clients. We do recognize the fact that there is an amount of margin difference between us and the other two CRAs. Our intent is obviously to cover some of those as we ramp up our sales. The way we are positioned here is we have worked a lot on the sales side of it, and if we continue the way we have done in the last three years, especially if you have seen our margin trajectory, the growth has been quite reasonable in the last three to four years. I think it has been quite good. We are able to catch up a lot of things.
If we continue with the same good work, I’m sure we will continue to do well. Does that answer your question, Abhijeet? Hello?
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Hey, can you hear me?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yes, Abhijeet, go ahead.
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Hey, sorry. My second question was on the knowledge services business. Historically, this business did enjoy pretty healthy margins. Now that the growth has started to slow down, does it also spiral into margin decline as well into the next two to three years?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: I would rather look at it differently. I think the focus for us as a management has been to largely grow the non-KS part of the analytics, which has got a different margin profile from the KS business. Just to clarify that, there is going to be some moderation, which we have hinted, but we don’t have very specific information in terms of what kind of moderation. We are assuming there would be some moderation. Having said that, our focus, I think, in the last one or two years, has been always to focus on the non-KS business. I think we had multiple conversations, Abhijeet, you would recollect. There, the margin profile will be different. The intent for us is to grow on an absolute EBITDA terms, as we have clarified in our press release also, there’s going to be a shift in the margin profile.
Because-
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Got it, sir.
Yeah.
Sir, in the non-KS business, given that the current reported numbers are impacted a little bit, how should we think about the steady-state margins?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Sorry, which business? Non?
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Non-KS.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yes. Yeah. Sorry, again, come back on the question again. Non-KS business?
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Non-KS business, how should we think about the steady-state margins, like over the next couple of years once we have a stabilization of the numbers?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: We don’t give a very specific margin guidance, and I think if you recollect, Shailendra earlier had said that the kind of business that we are in on the product side, 20%-25% EBITDA is I think what he spoke. That is something which generally what the industry does. We don’t give a guidance, but we have touched base on what the industry generally looks at these numbers, and I’m sure we will also try to see how we can actually work around that.
Abhijeet Sakhare, Analyst, Kotak Bank: Got it, sir. Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Gokul Maheshwari with Awriga Capital Advisors LLP. Please go ahead.
Gokul Maheshwari, Analyst, Awriga Capital Advisors LLP: Thank you for the opportunity. My question was just on the non-rating business. You’ve done a few acquisitions in the last few years. As you’re trying to sort of build a business beyond the non-knowledge services business, is your product portfolio largely complete, or is there more to be added with respect to build a bigger business over here?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Shailendra is here. Let me take this. Like you’ve seen in the investor presentation, we’ve now organized ourselves as a banking division and a capital markets division. Within the banking division, we are primarily serving the credit value stream and data value streams. In those value streams, any analytical or data requirements is what we’re trying to build out. From a portfolio completeness standpoint, we are pretty much there. There are a few gaps that we are trying to bridge by building internally. That kind of completes what we want to be doing. We’ll continue to explore adjacencies beyond these two value streams, which will be obviously new areas for us to grow. Within capital markets, we have a very good offering covering all the asset managers and newer segments within the capital markets that we are pursuing.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: There are opportunities for us, driven both by some of the regulatory tightening and requirements that are coming through, as well as some new greenfield opportunities that we are spotting. We’ll continue to make investments there.
Gokul Maheshwari, Analyst, Awriga Capital Advisors LLP: Which I assume, so this is basically largely investments which you have to do from internal expansions rather than making acquisitions to fuel your growth. Is that a fair statement?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: In our existing product sets, yes. Where we are, we are comfortable where we are. We have the right set of products. We do have to evolve those products with the advent of AI and the new evolution that we have to go through for the products, the next iteration of those products that we continue to do. By and large, in the spaces that we operate or the product portfolios that we have, we are complete, with the exception of those new regulatory changes that are driving additional requirements. Like I said, we will be looking at adjacent spaces, which are new areas, and we’ll explore all opportunities there.
Gokul Maheshwari, Analyst, Awriga Capital Advisors LLP: Okay, great. Just as a feedback, it was alluded in the previous questions also, we would be having more than INR 700 crore of net cash. Given our product portfolio is fairly comprehensive now on the non-ratings business, you may consider– Our business is not capital-intensive. We will be generating INR 180 crore-INR 200 crore of cash flow again this year. Our cash balance will further go up. Just as a feedback would be to rethink on ways to actually give money back to the shareholders if there are no opportunities to invest back in the business.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Point taken, Gokul. Yeah.
Gokul Maheshwari, Analyst, Awriga Capital Advisors LLP: Great. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ravi Purohit with Securities Investment Management Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. A couple of questions. One is, for Shailendra, I think we’ve been shareholders for ICRA for a very long period of time. ICRA Analytics is a completely new thing for a rating company, in that sense. If you could share some real-life use cases as to what does ICRA Analytics actually do for the end customer. Right now, most of the things that are spoken on the call are put out in the annual report are like Greek and Latin for a layman. When we analyze the rating business, we know what the rating business does. If you had to explain it to really a layperson, how would you explain what does it do, and what is an addressable market for a company like ours which gives us confidence that we will grow over a period of time?
Are we a tech company with some research, or are we a research company with some tech? We have absolutely no idea. If you could just share some insights, it will be very useful for us to understand and appreciate.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Sure. In summary, Fintellix is a risk-tech, reg-tech company. I’ll try to elaborate on that. Financial institutions, whether they are banks, insurers, asset managers, et cetera, they have a need to meet a variety of regulatory requirements. One is on the reporting side, which means they have to get all of their data, transaction data, analytical data, into what is called as a regulatory data repository or a data repository, do the necessary calculations that the regulators expect, structure format the data, and feed it into the regulator system. Either it is in files for the data extractions, APIs, and a variety of other formats. This is used by the regulators for a variety of reasons, including supervision, macros, and so on and so forth. That is one part of the business.
Organizing the data, the risk and regulatory data, helping financial institutions meet with the external reporting requirements, as well as certain internal regulatory use cases. The second set of solutions comes from credit-related requirements. There are analytical needs for a financial institution or a lender to be able to analyze, do decisions around credit, around monitoring of credit at a portfolio level, at an individual level. Whether it is spotting early warning signals, whether it is monitoring for non-performance loans, whether it is coding, classifying those, and accounting for those. Either as incurred loss method or the now expected credit loss method. All of these analytical solutions are the other type of solutions that we have. Broadly, in summary, this falls into the category of risk-tech and reg-tech.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Okay. When we look at, let’s say, someone like Oracle Financial Services or a Finacle from Infosys or a Intellect Design, who provide core banking solutions to the banks, and who provide risk analytics also, this is something that they can also do or they may already be doing. In that sense, how does Fintellix stand out vis-à-vis other software companies, core banking software companies or banking-related domain-specific software companies? Is there a difference between the two? If yes, can you just share or help us understand where does Fintellix stand out?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Yeah. See, the systems that you’re talking about, Finacle from Infosys or any other core banking system for that matter, they all sit within the transaction plane. Transaction plane is systems that are capturing transactions, they are systems of record, they are keeping record of the transactions as well as balances and so on. Our type of solution is more of the analytical plane. It is consuming data from all of these upstream systems. It could be a treasury system, it could be a core banking system, it could be a card processing system, it could be an internal banking system, and several others that typically exist in a bank or a lender. We consume all of the data, structure and store it in a way that risk and regulatory use cases can consume it. We build those risk and regulatory use cases on top of it.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Right.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: We don’t directly compete with the core banking vendors. In fact, in some cases, we plug on top of them, in some cases, we collaborate with them. Our type of solution, the need for it stems from regulators coming with new requirements or changing the existing requirements, and financial institutions maturing enough that they want to invest and automate some of the risk and regulatory use cases. These are typically reasons why somebody would come and talk to us and consume products with us.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Right. How should we look at the addressable market or the growth opportunities for us in the sense, where our revenue is today versus what it can be potentially if all the things work well for us and we execute really, really well. What kind of business scale can we achieve or what kind of a business scale does the end market actually offer us for us to scale up, right?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: I’ll respond to that slightly differently. Every single regulated entity within the BFSI space will need solutions like ours.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Yeah.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: How much they will spend on solutions like that is based on their scale and complexity, and second is on the regulatory push in terms of how much automation the regulators want to see from these regulated entities.
Obviously, we see much more higher levels of spending from the larger banks and financial institutions. The adoption levels are much, much lower within the smaller banks or the NBFCs and smaller entities.
As the supervisors who start looking at the next year and go down the chain, all of them will come under the pressure to start automating and being able to meet with the regulatory expectations. Our total addressable market is every single lender or regulated entity that is there within the banking space.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: We typically send them that one-time license fee or this is like an annual product, or annuity product that we sell to them.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Our preferred model is to have an annuity sort of a structure, but not every financial institution is ready to consume like that. Many of them also procure based on their more conventional buying ways, which is to, say, give an upfront license and a smaller recurring fees.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Yeah.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Yeah, we are making a concerted effort to shift towards more of a recurring subscription model.
Obviously, we will get there as the market matures to that standard.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Okay. Thanks, Shailendra. One question for Venkat and Ram. I think this is a common question across most of the con calls that we’ve had in the past on capital allocation. If you could also help us understand or renew our expectations in our minds when we look at acquisitions that we do. What kind of IRRs do we expect or what kind of payback periods do we expect when we make acquisitions? Even if you, let’s say, cash IRRs. For example, if we spend $25 million on Fintellix acquisitions or prior to that D2K. Typically, is there a benchmark IRR that we have or if yes, can you share that with us? How is it better than not holding excessive cash on the balance sheet or sending it back to the shareholders?
If you could just share the difference between the two, that would be helpful for us to also understand and appreciate.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: I think I will take that on this. From an acquisition, we have a standard framework that we have internally, which we have not actually externally published. This is internal, which goes through a fair amount of discussion internally, including the IRR. We have a set benchmark, and typically there is a payback period also defined very much there, which forms a part of the framework. We generally stick to that. Obviously, we also have to be mindful that being a listed entity, there are reporting norms, and we also have a detailed framework, and we actually take it to the board. That way, I think what we are trying to say is that this follows through a structured framework which is approved, and we actually align to that.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Obviously, there would be plus or minus few things that we’ll have to take a call, but broadly, we are guided by that framework in terms of both payback as well as the IRR.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Venkat, if you don’t disclose it to your shareholders, how do we know whether you have failed or passed in that acquisition? Or how do we assess whether it has actually worked or it has not worked? Is this not like a disconnect between the two?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: There are two parts to this. We have a framework. Naturally, we’ll look at the payback period, we’ll look at IRR. Most importantly, we first look at the synergies that the opportunity might bring or the adjacencies that the opportunity might bring to our stable. That’s the first filter. Apart from that, we look at IRR, payback, all the structure, management, all the rest of it, et cetera. Once that is done, naturally, as we are a board-governed entity, we take the proposal to the board, and the board evaluates all of this, and then either gives us the approval to go ahead with the transaction or otherwise. Once the contours of the transaction are approved by the board, the board periodically reviews them to see what we promise to deliver is consistent with actually what is being delivered.
That will go on till the time that the integration is actually completed. It is not as though it goes completely unsupervised. We don’t put it out in the public domain.
Internally, does the board actually look at it? Do they review it periodically to see whether the milestones are actually being met and whether what was actually promised or what we expected to deliver is consistent with what is actually being delivered? The answer is yes.
Ravi Purohit, Analyst, Securities Investment Management Private Limited: Right. Still, there is an internal benchmark from the board. I’m just thinking, when I look at Moody’s presentations in the U.S. or S&P’s presentations in the U.S., I think there is always a communication that this is what our benchmarks are. Whether we meet or not is a different outcome. The process is also kind of shared to a limited extent, to whatever possible. If you don’t share the process and the outcome, shareholders will always be in the dark. We don’t even know how much scale-up have happened since the acquisition, whether the ROEs were met, whether the ROCs were met, the paybacks were met. For us, once it is all a merged entity, there is absolutely a black hole. We have to basically just look at the numbers and assume whether it has happened or not happened.
Disclosure from a shareholder-friendly point of view, I think it might make sense and maybe we’ll take it as a feedback how should we communicate with the shareholders that we have done justice to the money that we have spent on acquisitions over a long period of time? Is there a tracking method that we can share with the shareholders? That’s all I had. Thank you so much.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yeah. Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nishant, a retail investor. Please go ahead.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Hi. Just a couple of things. One is, I was looking at page nine of your presentation. The organic growth was muted for the Research and Analytics business. What is a rough segment profit contribution of Fintellix?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: We don’t give any specific Fintellix contribution.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: You will have to disclose it in any case as part of annual report, right? Because this was like an acquired business.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Till the time we disclose for everyone, we have to maintain that parity.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Come again.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Till the time we disclose for all the shareholders, we’ll have to maintain that parity. Right now it is not in the public domain.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Okay. This should be a public call. Anyway, it’s okay. The second thing is, when we look at growth.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Nishant, I think we have given a note on the Fintellix, especially in the notes to accounts, where we have said, I think around 26% is the EBITDA for Fintellix. That note we have put it in the disclosure.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Understand. Okay, got it. The second one is in terms of just understanding the growth on a steady state basis. After we exclude the impact of labor code, basically there is a zip code of 20% growth. That’s the order of magnitude we should be looking at, in terms of the tenfold growth for FY 2026.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Sorry, how much you mentioned?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: 20% is the order of magnitude that I got.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yeah. You are right. Roughly it will be in that range. You’re talking about the segmental or you’re talking about the overall PBT?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Essentially segmental. The way I was thinking about it is that the segmental profit that you disclose on page nine is the core operating EBIT excluding the impact of interest income.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yeah.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: That seems to be in the zip code of 20%. That’s the right order of magnitude, right?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Closer to that, actually. It will be slightly lower than that, especially you’re talking about Research and Analytics, right?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Overall. Both put together.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yeah, you are right. It will be closer to 20, 21% if we exclude the amortization as well, investment amortization.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Got it. Okay. What is the total dollar-denominated business that we have on the top line?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Dollar would be roughly around the range of around. Just give me one minute, I think.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Sure. Yeah.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Are you asking specifically within the R&A business?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: No, overall. I’m just trying to understand how much of the revenue for the company total. If I look at the INR 600 crores of top line that you have for FY 2026, how much of that would be denominated in dollars?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Roughly about $18 million.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: $18 million. Okay. That’s about a third of your, maybe a shade below a third. Okay.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Close.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: I understand. That effect is that the currency impact doesn’t have a full flow-through in Q4, is it?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: It has. Say.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: I’m just trying to understand how much of the growth was because of currency versus.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: There will be a flow-through of the currency, actually. Roughly, one-fourth of that if you take and compare it with last, there will be some growth on account of currency.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Currency.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Typically what we do is we don’t recommend or say that you look at only the quarter, because what also happens.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Right
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: in the quarter is there’s some true-up which happens for incentives. It keeps on happening. If you look at the previous quarter, there was an impact of the labor code and all.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Exactly
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: we would rather want it to be an half-year or full year to the extent possible.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Understand. Of the costs, are there, let’s say, significant dollar-denominated costs, like, let’s say, product licenses or other nothing?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Not significant.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Okay. Understand. Basically, the way I should think about it is that about $18 million is effectively dollar-denominated revenue and rupee-denominated costs.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: Yeah. Roughly. There will be some odd.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Predominantly, I’m just trying to get a sense of order of magnitudes. Okay.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors0: That’s right.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Understand. Okay. Just one last question with respect to Fintellix. Who would be the competitor for us in this business?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Let me take that, Shailendra here.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Yeah.
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: Globally, a couple of names I’ll give you, Regnology and Alfac Technologies. These are again, private equity/public company-backed entities that have grown through a lot of acquisitions over the last few years. They are the ones that we typically find in the large global banks or internationally when we chase opportunities. We also see a different kind of competition. There are a lot of the system integrators that will be there, who will be pitching for more bespoke builds or customized solutions around this. From a product standpoint, these are the larger global players. There were many more which have now gotten consolidated into these two through a series of acquisitions that have happened over the last 24 months. Within India, we come across the usual suspects. Some of the other CRAs have equivalent risk-related solutions.
There are smaller entities that have one or two of the solutions that we also have within our larger portfolio.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Understand. Effectively, the way to think about this business is that you have data provided by the lender or the regulated entity, and then you sort of organize the data and provide access mechanisms to the regulator or to the regulatory engagement team in the bank or with the regulator, effectively like a streamlined pipe for them to access and sort of view the compliance track of the company. Is that the way to think about the machine here?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: I’ll add a couple of more layers to that. What you said is right. That is one part of what we do. Also think of the regulatory rules, regulatory templates, regulatory calculations that are required to be done, including any underlying models that are required to be able to achieve that. Those are all part of the solution. We also constantly have to make sure that the product continues to meet the regulatory frameworks and regulatory requirements as prescribed by the respective jurisdictional regulators. That’s part of what customers pay for.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Understand. Today it is only credit institutions, or you also do insurance?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: We do. It is all types of financial institutions. Obviously, a high concentration within the lending universe. We are trying to foray into some of the other adjacent areas as well.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors1: Okay, got it. Thank you. I don’t have any further questions. Thanks for taking my questions.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Divij Punjabi with Banyan Tree Advisors. Please go ahead.
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: Yeah. Thank you so much for explaining the product of Fintellix. Just wanted to understand, do we foresee any risks from the AI or GenAI on the regulatory reporting side? Because what I understand is we take certain data, structure it as per what regulation requires, and then pass it on to the regulator. Can some AI model do this?
Shailendra Mruthyunjayappa, MD and CEO of ICRA Analytics Limited, Head of Research and Analytics Vertical, ICRA Limited: AI has threatened every aspect of the technology world and every workflow within any enterprise. Honestly, this is the place which will be far-fetched because of the regulatory complexity that is involved and the fact that the level of accuracy required, the level of SME expertise that is required to interpret the regulations and construct those regulatory submissions and any calculations, that is quite high. An external provider who brings this expertise doing it for a financial institution, I think they also rely upon that aspect. Is there a possibility that some parts of this will get automated or threatened by AI? Yes, there is always that possibility. You can never rule that out. By and large, this space will continue to exist and I believe, going forward, be very relevant for regulated entities who rely on external vendors like us.
Operator: Does that answer your question, Divij?
Divij Punjabi, Analyst, Banyan Tree Advisors: Yeah. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. On behalf of ICRA Management, that concludes this conference call. I thank all the participants for joining us. Thank you.
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