00:00 Nuwama Wealth Management has listed today on the BSE and NSE and with me is Mr. Ashish
00:05 Keher, who is the MD and CEO of the Nuwama Group.
00:08 Thank you so much, sir, for taking out the time to talk to us.
00:11 What is the purpose of demerging from the Edelweiss financial services that you did
00:16 and how is that going to create value for the company as well as the shareholders?
00:20 So demerger actually was a decision taken long back when we decided to sell majority
00:26 stake to a private equity company and when private equity came in, there was either a
00:31 choice to do IPO or a demerger and I think the Edelweiss management decided to do a demerger
00:37 because in their view that would create more value for the shareholders of Edelweiss.
00:42 I think their ultimate intention which they had thought was to create value for the shareholders
00:47 of Edelweiss.
00:48 How the company will benefit?
00:50 I think how every other listed company benefits because it is in a more transparent and more
00:56 scrutinized domain.
00:58 So it helps attract more talent.
01:01 You can have more well-meaning ESOP plans for the employees.
01:06 Your disclosures are well-tracked.
01:08 So you have better relationships with credit rating agencies and lenders.
01:13 So I think there is a collective set of benefits which accrues to any listed company because
01:17 of the transparency with which it operates.
01:20 Wealth management as an industry is a big opportunity in a country like India.
01:24 So how has the growth and the performance been in terms of your firm?
01:28 So our published numbers for the last two years since the time PAG came in, we have
01:34 literally increased our profits by 1.8 times in two years.
01:38 So we were about 200 crores of operating pact.
01:41 We closed 2023 with about 368 crores of operating pact.
01:46 Revenues grew by about 57%.
01:49 So I think growth has been reasonably good, but I must say it was also a year in which
01:55 COVID had happened.
01:56 So it was a low base year.
01:58 But fundamentally, the sector actually offers a potential for all the companies to grow
02:03 anywhere between 20 to 25%.
02:05 It is a nascent sector.
02:06 It is a growing sector.
02:09 Penetration is still low.
02:10 So I think for the next decade or so, companies should be able to see good growth in this
02:15 sector.
02:16 So what about the client size and also your AUM size?
02:18 You know, what is it currently at?
02:21 And do you have any targets in mind for the next year or two, three years?
02:24 So we are at about order of magnitude 2 lakh crores.
02:30 And we operate in two client segments.
02:32 One client segment is called Ultra HNI, which is 25 crore plus, which is operated under
02:38 the brand Numama Private.
02:41 And then the second one is what we call Mid Market, which is Affluent and HNI, which is
02:45 5 to 25 crores.
02:47 It is called Numama Wealth.
02:49 In addition to that, we also have an asset management business, asset services business
02:53 and capital markets business.
02:55 So asset growth anywhere between 18 to 20% is what we target because 8 to 10% gets compounded
03:02 on your current base and fresh flows from existing and new clients add another 10%.
03:08 And with operating efficiency and all, you can add slightly higher in terms of profits
03:12 every year.
03:13 So what kind of interest are you seeing in any sort of, you know, particular segment
03:17 in your business?
03:18 And also, I mean, any strategies or any plans to, you know, enhance the business to, you
03:23 know, to a growth trajectory?
03:25 So multiple things.
03:26 Obviously, the most basic will be, you know, increasing the number of RMs.
03:31 So that we want to double over the next three to five years.
03:34 We will want to increase the locations where we operate in because in our view, business
03:41 is expanding far beyond the top 10, 15, 20 cities.
03:45 In our mid-tier business, we are already in about 65 to 70 locations.
03:50 We will go beyond 100, 150 maybe.
03:53 And in the upper, in the upper end, which is Numama Private, we will go to 25 to 30
03:58 locations.
03:59 We will also go to 3, 4 key offshore centers where there is significant NRI diaspora with
04:06 interest towards India.
04:08 Because now I think India has become mainstream in global investing.
04:11 It was not so in the decade of 2000 to 2010.
04:16 But now India is mainstream and NRIs are looking for credible and compelling solutions.
04:21 So we want to go out.
04:22 Asset management, we have multiple strategies in different sectors lined up like commercial
04:26 real estate, private credit, absolute return fund.
04:29 So I think all in all, expansion in all the areas, which we should see in the next three
04:34 to five years.
04:35 Well, congratulations on the listing, sir, and hope you achieve great heights for the
04:39 company.
04:40 Thank you.
04:41 Thank you very much.
04:41 Thank you.
04:42 Thank you.
04:42 Thank you.
04:43 Thank you.
04:44 Thank you.
04:46 Thank you.
04:47 Thank you.
04:48 (camera shutter clicking)
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